Is there any truth to ‘go woke, go broke’?

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ It’s the catchcry of a certain tranche of X - formerly Twitter - users: Go woke go broke. It has been levelled at everyone from Budweiser in the United States, which suffered a decline in sales after a social media partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, to Strictly Come Dancing in Britain for its ratings falling when it included same-sex couples and a contestant with dwarfism. In New Zealand, Mike Hosking asked Patrick Gower - after the confirmation Newshub would close - what he would say to people who said “go woke, go broke”.

The term comes from African-American Vernacular English. Over the past five years it’s been used as an insult from the right wing around the world - and especially in the US - to criticise efforts on anything from the environment to race and gender diversity initiatives..