What’s been happening to the culture in much of the West over the past 12 months has been given many different names: “the vibe shift”, “the cultural tipping point”, and “a weather change”. It’s been described in basic terms as the backlash against “woke”. A more sophisticated analysis calls it the “the turning against managerial authoritarianism” and “the reassertion of democratic populism”.

In November, the election of Donald Trump as US president and his victory in the popular vote were manifestations of the trend. Another was the news on the homepage of The Washington Post from Wednesday this week. Just below the story “Meta ends fact-checking, drawing praise from Trump” was one with the title “McDonald’s ending some DEI practices, joining a growing list of companies”.