Is the Great Awokening over?

I noticed during the run-up to the 2022 elections that the Democrats and their allies in the media were talking less and less about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, and the racial reckoning, presumably because they were terrified that the huge increase in crime that the liberal Establishment had unleashed would cost them at the polls.

Indeed, the Democrats took such a beating from crime-wary voters in the Greater New York area that even George Santos briefly graced the House of Representatives.

But in the rest of the country, crime is less of a pressing issue than in locales where many locals need to commute into New York City and ride the subway and walk the streets. New Yorkers need strong law and order, because they are physically exposed to so many strangers each day.

In contrast, if you commute from your nice Memphis suburb in your F-150 to work in a downtown office tower, a high local murder rate is less stressful than it would be in New York.

And indeed, the huge crime wave that crashed over America in the days following George Floyd’s death on 5/25/20 as the liberal Establishment decided that America’s most pressing problem was too much law and order and called for a racial reckoning to do something about it didn’t prove a massively effective election-winning issue for Republicans in 2022 outside of the New York area.

The good news about crime in 2024 is that while property crime remains high, violent crime appears to be sinking down after the colossal self-inflicted wound of the “racial reckoning” era of the early 2020s. Cops are no longer harangued as much for doing their jobs.

The once mandatory term “racial reckoning” is so extreme, so reminiscent of Django Unchained-like violent vengeance movies, that many readers think I made it up to parody how over the top the Establishment press got during post-George Floyd mania. But no, the New York Times ran 97 articles referencing the “racial reckoning” in 2021.

In 2022, the word seemed to get out to the serious part of press that all their Black Lives Matter and racial reckoning talk wasn’t helping Democratic Party prospects, so the front sections of newspapers seemed to start toning down their hate speech against whites.

But the soft-headed culture sections in the back didn’t get message, so the 2020s cultural revolution grinds on among NGOs like the (former) NYC Audobon Society:

From the Associated Press:

NYC bird group drops name of illustrator and slave owner Audubon

BY KAREN MATTHEWS

Updated 9:57 AM PDT, June 11, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — The conservationist group known as NYC Audubon has changed its name to NYC Bird Alliance to distance itself from the pro-slavery views of ornithologist and illustrator John James Audubon, the organization announced.

The name change, which was formalized by a June 5 membership vote, follows similar moves by Audubon Society chapters in Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and other cities.

… Audubon owned enslaved people for a number of years but sold them in 1830 when he moved to England, where he was overseeing the production of “The Birds of America,” according to Gregory Nobles, the author of “John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman.”

As usual, birdwatcher bureaucrats are convinced that African-Americans are this close to converting en masse to birdwatching as their favorite hobby. The only reason African-Americans tend to find other activities more fun is because of evil Whiteness. If only we could root out all whiteness from birdwatching, we have millions of new black birdwatchers.

… NYC Bird Alliance’s leaders say they hope that dropping the Audubon name will help them win broader support for their mission of advocating for endangered and threatened bird species.

“For the sake of the Piping Plover, Philadelphia Vireo, Golden-winged Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Bobolink, Saltmarsh Sparrow, Fish Crow, and many other species, we need help,” NYC Birding Alliance says on its website’s “FAQS About Audubon Name” page. “We cannot allow our name to be a barrier to our conservation, advocacy, and engagement work.”

As you may recall, until the George Floyd Memorial Mostly Peaceful Protests galvanized liberal institutions, the Big Story in late May 2020 to overthrow Trump over racism (after the 2019 failure of the NYT’s Plan A: RussiaGate) looked like it was going to be the Central Park Karen. On May 26, 2020, the BBC ran the white lady dogwalker’s confrontation with (ironically) a gay black Karen who threatened her dog for being off leash as America’s and perhaps the world’s most important story.

Fortunately, the obvious insanity of the times has receded. But is it merely lying dormant, waiting for a more propitious moment?