Tim Urban, author of Wait But Why, defines wokeness during a talk on political discourse at the All-In Summit.
Assertion Supported
Tim Urban: Berkeley and UCLA require diversity statements for chemistry professorships
“Berkeley, right now, and UCLA, and about 20 other schools. If you want to apply to be a chemistry professor, The first thing that you do is you have to fill out a diversity statement, and it's called, that sounds nice, a diversity statement, but it's actually,…”
Assertion Partly supported
Urban: James Bennet was fired for publishing Tom Cotton's op-ed
“We see James Bennett, the editor of the New York Times op-ed section, getting fired because he published an op-ed by Tom Cotton that 62% of the country agreed with, But it didn't jive with woke orthodoxy.”
Assertion Partly supported
Urban: Apple fired diversity head Denise Young Smith over comments
“You see Denise Young at Apple, a black woman who's the head of diversity, who says, to me, diversity is not, you know, it's more complicated than just about something like race. When I look at 12 blue-eyed, blond-haired guys, I see diversity. I see different p…”
Insight
Urban: Outrage mobs hijack reputable institutions and spend down their trust
“A mob like this, they don't build anything, you know, they don't create. What they do is they appropriate, they hijack something, they take its existing good reputation, which is real, which is a lot of power, And they spend it down.”
Opinion
Tim Urban: The far left and far right aren't inherently bad
“The far left and far right aren't inherently bad.”
Insight
Tim Urban: Low-rung thinkers adopt rigid, predictable political checklists across all issues
“In high-rung politics, if someone tells me their position on guns, I have no idea what their position is on climate change or on abortion or on immigration. In low-rung politics, You hear one position from someone, boom. I, you can just look at their demeanor,…”