People are saying that the woke/DEI stuff went too far and that’s why Trump won.

I worked at an agency where the DEI officer would read my scripts and give me feedback about what could be potentially triggering language, and I’d be like, “cool, lemme change the script.”

But I was never like, “I should vote an oligarch into power, because this is stupid.”

I think the DEI/woke stuff is/was more prevalent in advertising. I never felt like any of it went too far. Like, it was fine. Whatever.

It’s racism. Pure and simple. Never mind that the largest beneficiaries as a group of those DEI policies has been White women. Or that DEI includes veterans, military spouses and their families, parental leave, or care for children with special needs.

The easiest way to understand what those folks mean when they say “woke” is just to replace it with “Black people” (or Trans/Mexican/Muslim/etc). In fact if you really want to hear their internal dialogue when the say “DEI hire” just go ahead and imagine the slur. That will help you understand the dog whistle.

That’s why so many are SHOCKED that the roll back if DEI is beginning to affect them. They were fine with the cruelty as long as it was only hurting (insert slur here).

It was never about the policies, and always about the racism. The oglioarchy was just a facsist cherry on top of a hatred sundae.

Realistically most people voting never actually interacted with anything pertaining to DEI beyond pundits on tv talking about it. They think that everytime they see a black person in a commercial instead of a white person - that’s DEI. If a superhero is cast as anything other than a white man, that’s because Hollywood is too woke. The rejection of “DEI” by white america is racism. Plain and simply, a large swath of white americans cannot handle the idea of being treated like anything less than the main character 100% of the time, and conservative talking heads seized on that discomfort to create a strawman to pit them against. As long as white america is pissed off at people who dont look like them and dont share their cultural priorities, they arent looking up at the mega-rich who are stealing the food out of their mouths. The game is rigged to keep us all at odds while they usher us backwards towards new-age serfdom under their oligarchical rule.

DEI is institutionalized racism.

It started as what would have been a good cause, and turned slowly into meaning less straight white men the better.

It went down hill after all the ridiculous trainings, people telling you that you are racist just because you are white, pronouns, people being offended at absolutely every turn, etc.

People are just tired of everything being a race or gender based issue.

I literally do not care who I work with as long as they show up, respect everyone, and get their work done.

I came from an average middle class family, from a household with two blue collar parents - I didn’t oppress anyone.

Your short comings, are exactly what they are - YOURS

Trump won because Americans were hurting at the pocketbook and the democrats had fractured messaging that notably didn’t focus on the economy at all, while running candidates no one liked.

Meanwhile, everyone knew that high-powered democrats (and republicans too, but they somehow escaped the blame) were using their office to enrich themselves.

If you actually listened to people instead of just getting emotional and reactionary, you might see the perspective of the other.

Most people on the right don’t care about your sexual preferences or what color you are. Are there exceptions, sure, but that’s with everything.

DEI to them included everything that had to do with race or sexuality.

They don’t think teaching about trans or gay to elementary school kids is a good idea.

They don’t think minors should be encouraged to explore sexuality or what gender they might. I’ve seen people say their 2 year old was trans.

They don’t think biological males belong in women’s spaces (sports, locker rooms, bathrooms)

They don’t think standards should be lowered for the sake of increasing the diversity of a workforce (eg. military has lower physical standards for women).

They don’t need sexuality needs to be forced into everything. Not every new Netflix show needs a gay element to it.

Some of the stuff above seems pretty rationale. You may not agree with and that’s ok. But to label half the country as stupid racists seems equally stupid.

We would all be better served if we just listened to each other. We don’t need to tow party lines. We are allowed to disagree with each other. The name calling and rhetoric is getting old and is not getting to fix anything.

And engineered problem to win elections

DEI is a fraction of the cheese wheel. I feel the center of the loss was because Democrats refused to cannibalize their own billionaire donor class to attract middle class voters.

Optics haven’t been in their favor.

Nancy Pelosi’s stock gains?

Monsanto and the seed laws of the Clinton era?

Handing out housing and such to migrants in New York City?

Sitting by in silence as Ivy League universities turned into feeding grounds of anti-American ideology?

Sitting by idly year over year as more and more employment is offshored to India, Costa Rica, and Romania?

Not persecuting criminals to the proper extent of the law?

It all hit them hard in their self righteous crusade. They stood for everything “moral” but never once had a unified message of what it was we were supposed to unite behind. I guess they were good for bailing out banks and airlines, and then strike breaking a rail road strike? It’s all just inconsistent and no one felt incredibly moved by any of their messaging.

I still voted for them, but it wasn’t really for them - it was against the idiot coalition.

The reason people rejected DEI is because the opportunities for uneducated white men in this country is in free fall. When the Dems put all their eggs in the DEI bucket those white families saw an entire party that wasn’t working for them.

DEI = Didn't Earn It

it went too far if you were in leadership. I’m not in leadership, but I know many that are and the meetings they’ve had where “woke” issues caused so many problems to just make a great ad.

Thank God I'm in a position of power where I can prevent this DEI bs from getting anywhere near my team.

Controlling language is a slow but sure road to totalitarianism. Read 1984. It starts with good intentions then before you realize you are in jail for what you say. It’s happening in Europe now.

DEI is necessary and helpful. But it went too far. It lost any sense and everything was a trigger. It was like game to see who came up with the most obscure, remote, stretched potential issue. Not sure why things can’t ever be balanced. It’s either the kingdom of DEI nonsense or fuck DEI. Can’t we never find a way to make things work in a reasonable way?

It’s racism. I’ve seen it and experienced it.

There’s actually a bit of it tied to midlife crisis. Disclaimer - this is a generalization and not true to all - but as humans, we all grow up thinking of an ideal life. People attracted to the maga life often think they are smarter and better positioned. When they reach midlife and realize that they haven’t reached their ambitions and start to not be happy with their current state, they look for someone to blame. The attack on DEI practices gives them a scape goat. It’s not that they aren’t amazing and smart - it’s that the system was rigged against them. They look at others who achieved more and ignore the hard work those people put in to get there - they only see that those individuals had the life/position/money they was “rightly thiers”. And it only gets worse the more unhappy the individual is.

Hell yeah bro. They done goofed.

DEI is literally let’s appeal to a broader market and gain more market share. Thats it. People are just dumb as a sack of bricks. 🧱 It’s telling that if you look at Google search trends it spiked the week after Biden dropped out.

WC1 gets it!!!

Political Correctness is a Soviet area term used to make sure you do not offend the views of the state

Every time, and I mean EVERY time an agency I’ve worked for had to apologize or pull down a campaign, the entire creative team was WHITE MEN. They aren’t evil; they just have no frame of reference, so having people available to give feedback about how copy or imagery might be offensive is valuable. And I don’t know why that isn’t a benefit to all.

And as a person who was often the only Black person in the room or department, having someone, anyone, reaching out to the less obvious pipelines for creative talent (like the expensive and all but useless ad schools) is good for the whole industry.

Get over it. Diversity is a FACT. If you choose to deny it or fight against it in your workplace, YOU are regressive and the problem.