How WOKE Policies Destroyed the West

“The consequences of prioritizing feelings over facts manifest across multiple domains, from immigration policy to criminal justice reform, creating systemic vulnerabilities that threaten social cohesion and public safety.” – Suicidal Empathy

In August 2025, Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death in a North Carolina train by Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr., a career criminal with 14 prior arrests, including armed robbery and burglary.  This heinous crime led to a new law, Iryna’s Law, following Brown's first-degree murder charge, undoing cashless bail and implementing mental health evaluations of criminals.  A small victory against policies attempting to rehabilitate criminals and not punish them. 

A new twist on black fatigue began in 2025 when citizens became tired of black perpetrators being seen repeatedly looting stores and businesses.  A marked shift from the WOKE politics of BLM from 2020, when people were silenced for not going along with the narrative of systemic racism.  After trillions of dollars in reparations in the form of welfare, education, housing, and DEI policies, the American public has finally had enough.   

In an attempt to root for the underdog, many played along, as one irrational policy after another was implemented to fix enduring problems.  The Golden Rule in the Bible told us that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us, that is, to put ourselves in their shoes.  Under this principle of quasi-reciprocity, we hoped that others would be merciful to us in a similar situation.  Empathy is, in fact, essential for the survival of society.  Yet, when care is expended for all the wrong reasons, its outcomes often end with unintended consequences. 

In Mary Elizabeth Baker’s 2025 book, “Suicidal Empathy”, Baker shows how noble intentions over facts on the ground have created catastrophic policies that have undermined society and destroyed Western values by preying upon people’s sympathy to the point of irrational policies.  Misled by the belief that diversity is our strength, a new set of multicultural policies was implemented, focused solely on an outcome-based philosophy.

As such, sanctuary cities limited cooperation with federal authorities in an attempt to protect illegals over Americans; claims of systemic racism led to calls for defunding of the police, leading to an increase in crime in mostly minority neighborhoods, while the defense of transgender men in women’s spaces has led to injury, assault, and overall usurpation of women’s rights. 

Internationally, a call for global governance, under the guise of humanitarianism, drove open border policies and social engineering away from nationalistic pride, advancing global rather than individual country planning.  The result, whether in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, or the United States, is growing social disorder, erosion of shared identity, cultural dysfunction, and an increase in crimes.  Public services became strained, creating bad feelings between citizens and workers who largely fund the bills and immigrants and their dependents, who largely don’t.    

Rather than being formed out of rational, logical thinking, policies became emotional responses at best, and symbolic virtue signaling at worst.  These pseudo-compassion policies didn’t care about positive outcomes, rather how they make the authors of the policies feel about themselves.  For the moral preeners who supported such policies, this band-aid approach brought long-term consequences when root problems were left unaddressed.  Buoyed by their insincere and empty concern, these activists have done little to address real problems, only making matters worse. 

True compassion requires genuine pity and concern for others.  Ignoring such care has shielded people from their own actions and created greater societal challenges.  A return to personal responsibility and fair punishment will lead to greater good for the community.  Nations must protect their citizens first by upholding the rule of law, with strong borders providing safety to citizens.  

Extreme empathy that prioritizes feelings over evidence-based thinking has led to this undue catastrophe.