Eric Kaufmann’s new book pillories ‘progressive’ (woke) extremism – including Albanese Labor

Taboo is a stimulating compendium of scholarship and ideas. In which woke isn't to be taken lightly. But represents, a gulf between elite thought and governance, and the reasonable needs and concerns of voters.

"Outnumbered" as he is, Kaufmann finds allies in UK and US academia, less so here.

There's UK Matt Goodwin's Values, voice and virtue, despairing at the voter-governance disconnect. Culturally left institutions demean ordinary Brits as "morally inferior".

In the US, there's black scholar Musa Al-Gharbi's upcoming We have never been woke: "How a new 'woke' elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status-without helping the marginalised and disadvantaged."

The Trudeau-Albanese climate bromance highlights another aspect of wokeness.

For thirty years now, UN has sidelined "active" population policy (aka birth control) for climate policy and hypothetical net-zero emissions. In woke terms, the former policies are "racist", the latter "anti-racist".

Indeed, the "guilty" global North should compensate the South, for climate loss and damage. As if this feelgood would overcome intractable health and environmental costs of UN's eight billion people and rising.

Every year adds another 75-80 million mouths to feed. Human emissions (and atmospheric CO2 levels) keep breaking records.

But in UN (hence Labor) doctrine, "net" emissions can bend it like Beckham to "save" the environment. As a bonus, Labor's semi-mystical "net-zero transformation stream" can assure Australia's industrial future.

Hence, I'd expand wokeness to the "sacralisation of race and other historically disadvantaged groups, privileging UN climate-population creed".

For Australia, "progressive" Labor offers wellbeingrubrics and climate rainbows. Old wine - entrenched wealthand inequality- decanted from new bottles. Here and in Canada institutionalised immigration overload signals a tough decadefor younger voters.