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Comment by josephg | Hacker News Reader

> on-going identity culture war which is happening in the west.

I'd love to see some demographics around this. When I lived in the bay area, most of my friends were part of this woke / "activist" community. I had some friends who disagreed, but mostly they were terrified to say so for fear of the mob.

Here in Australia, it seems like the demographics are the other way around. I know a few people who are part of the leftist woke / "activist" tribe. But most people I interact with socially think that while racism is a problem, the twitter mobs are a bit silly, and the woke stuff is overblown.

I don't know how you'd measure, but I'd love to see stats on what percentage of the communities in different cities hold this political stance. Is it growing or shrinking? Is it widespread in the west, or is it mostly just a bay area / portland / NY phenomenon - with small satellite groups in other countries?

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From my subjective and anecdotal perception as someone who interacts with people from many countries, it looks mostly like an US thing at the moment.

The problem is that most of the West tends to imitate cultural and political trends that originate in the US. And this is already being imitated. In most other countries we are not yet seeing a war to the extent we see in the US, but the American situation could be the canary in the coal mine.

My theory is that because the US has been shifting right for decades, parts of the US leftwing has to some extent resigned itself to thought policing and arguing semantics instead of fighting for actual policy changes. When you can't fix the big problems, find some small problem that you can focus on instead. If the US had a leftwing party that occasionally got in power (instead of a two-party system with a centrist and a rightwing party) then lefties would probably spend their effort on making that happen instead.

> instead of a two-party system with a centrist and a rightwing party

LOL no

You have a moderate right and a far right party by now.

Even in 2016, an analysis between Hillary Clinton and Theresa May showed some of Clinton's views were to the right to those of May.

Seems not even in the US things are as clear-cut as it seems: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/large-majo...

Fascinating, thank you!

First and foremost, it is a disproportionately loud group in terms of the media, small or not. This is the important issue.

> Here in Australia, it seems like the demographics are the other way around. I know a few people who are part of the leftist woke / "activist" tribe. But most people I interact with socially think that while racism is a problem, the twitter mobs are a bit silly, and the woke stuff is overblown.

It's going to be funny a few years down the road when the trend comes to Australia before they actually notice.

Here's Australia taking the piss out of woke:

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/why-are-you-like-this

I don't know if iView works overseas, but I think the show is on Netflix too.

Think pendulums reacting to their perceptions of each other, maybe.

I work with a Canadian team but American parent company. We see what they are going through and it is definitely different. I think our version of equality is just working together as peers and respecting each other, there is no performative or ablutionary aspect.

For the record, I think parent co. is genuine and seems very diverse too. Views are my own yada yada.

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