Is Woke Dead?

Touchpoint Events

Four of the West's finest heterodox thinkers join forces  to tackle the most important question of 2025.

Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, London, UK

Is cultural socialism, the ideology of equal outcomes and emotional harm protection for identity groups, in terminal decline? The Trump administration is slashing DEI across government, rolling back equity-based executive orders from half a century ago and using the power of the purse to curtail scholar activism on campus. At the same time, US corporations are backing away from equity and diversity, the media is less interested in identity politics and even radicals like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ash Sarkar are stepping back from elements of woke. Cultural commentators remark on a ‘vibe shift’ in which progressive activists have lost energy and woke is no longer fashionable among young people.On the other hand, these trends are less noticeable outside America. In Britain, the Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of sex is biological, but aside from the trans issue, it is difficult to spot much retreat from woke in public life. In Canada, transactivists continue to set the tone while education remains unabashedly cultural socialist, with little interference from government. Moreover, in all these countries, support for the trans agenda, victimhood culture and attacks on national history is considerably higher among Gen-Z, who will be the median voter of tomorrow. Even in the United States, the DEI complex is rebranding and evading to survive Republican pressure at federal and state levels.What is the motivation behind this ideology? Can woke really be extinguished by executive orders that can be readily repealed by an incoming Democratic administration? What is the situation in Britain, which has been criticized by none other than Vice-President J.D. Vance for criminalizing and restricting right-wing speech? Our distinguished panel will grapple with these issues in a debate you won’t want to miss.Our panelists are distinguished high-impact contributors to the emerging study of woke ideology. Gad Saad is a professor of marketing at Concordia University in Canada and a visiting professor and global ambassador at Northwood University (2024-2045), an evolutionary psychologist and author, among others, of The Parasitic Mind and the forthcoming Suicidal Empathy. He is the host of the popular YouTube channel The Saad Truth. Batya Ungar-Sargon, formerly deputy editor of Newsweek and a regular commentator in the US media, is a self-described ‘MAGA leftist’ known for her critiques of elite liberalism and advocacy for working-class Americans. She addresses questions of woke culture in in her books Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy and Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women.​ Matthew Goodwin is a British political scientist, author, and commentator known for his work on populism and elite culture. He is Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham and is the author of National Populism, Values, Voice and Virtue and, most recently, Bad Education: Why Our Universities are Broken and How to Fix Them. Goodwin is a regular media contributor and currently co-hosts State of the Nation on GB News. The debate will be chaired by Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham and author of, most recently, Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution.

Agenda

Doors Open

Debate Commences

VIP Meet and Greet

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Is Woke Dead?

More events from Touchpoint Events

Discover more events from Touchpoint Events, from Community to other experiences you might love.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in London and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.

Is Woke Dead?

More events from Touchpoint Events

Discover more events from Touchpoint Events, from Community to other experiences you might love.

More Community events

Browse more Community events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in London and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.