By now, everybody has heard of the AWFLs–affluent white female liberals–and knows that their political views diverger dramatically from those of white men and the population as a whole.
But I am not quite sure that we yet grasp how awful this group really is, and how out of touch from reality they appear to be.
Being affluent, they are insulated from most of the ills that trouble less well-off people in America, and they almost certainly are isolated from the crime, urban decay, inflation (it’s only money…), violent protests, and most of the other practical matters you and I have to deal with because we live in the real world.
They live in a world where Race2Dinner parties are worth thousands of dollars to attend.
This is the demographic that swoons over Robin diAngelo, Imbram X. Kendi, make TikTok videos about all the injustices in the world and how Bad Orange Man caused them, and who thought Biden was dreamy and Kamala Harris was a visionary.
The latest NBC poll reveals just how stark the division between white women and white men are, and to a lesser extent how uniquely different the group is from the population as a whole.
This is from my NBC News piece that looks at how this divide plays out on a variety of topics — and how college+ white women now stand far to the left of other white voters and have helped push the Democratic Party leftward on cultural issues https://t.co/19AeDQ64A8
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) March 18, 2025
The differences are so stark that if white women just voted and believed as the rest of the population did this country would look dramatically different. Donald Trump would be considered a popular president, programs like DEI and problems like alphabet ideology would largely disappear, and social issues that are considered central to our politics would be fringier issues.
KORNACKI: We see this. White women, college degree. The only group of white voters that is on the “left” and Democrat. For instance, continuing DEI programs. 68% white, college women say yes. Completely different by ~40 points.pic.twitter.com/BpKum4Z6kR
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 19, 2025
White women with a college degree are among the most liberal people in America, and are unusually politically passionate. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs they are beyond all wants save seeking the esteem of others and “self-actualization,” which is a fancy word for trying to find their best selves. Which, in this case, is proving that they are especially virtuous people.
The result is that white women are looking at each other for approval and trying to climb the virtue ladder, and if they are already highly regarded looking for ways to make themselves feel that they are the best they can be, which in most cases means better than everybody else.
Donald Approval Rating Demographics Per NBC Poll
White Men No Degree: 🟢 Approve +41
White Men With Degree: 🟢 Approve +1
White Woman No Degree: 🟢 Approve +14
White Woman With Degree: 🔴 Disapprove -38 pic.twitter.com/hIcXPbUA8g— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) March 19, 2025
To be charitable, many of these women do believe they are doing the right thing, but see things through the lens of higher education, which focuses less on practical matters and more on theories about how to make the world a better place. Aspirations, which are abstract, count more than practical matters, which seem grubby.
White college educated women are odds with everyone. They’ve lost their minds.
I’ve broken with my cohort. And they come for you when you do. Make no mistake.
They are vicious. They are the drivers of cancel culture. https://t.co/TF7DgQj86G
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) March 19, 2025
Not every AWFL is a “Karen” or simply virtue signaling, but most women in this cohort share the same news sources, have adopted similar views on how the world works and what the problems are, believe that empathy and sympathy are the highest virtues, and tend to disdain the idea that all choices involve trade offs.
“If only everybody did X, the world would be better” is a formula for solving problems in their minds. “Everybody who disagrees is a racist/sexist/homophobe” is a common complaint.
That reality doesn’t work that way is a strike against reality itself, not a fact to be acknowledged and dealt with.
New NBC poll: A 71-point net difference between white non-college-educated men and white-college educated women in opinions on DEI.
Also interesting: College-educated women (slightly) dislike Musk more than Trump. pic.twitter.com/9wQgNXhlST
— i/o (@eyeslasho) March 19, 2025
AWFLs tend to have extraordinary faith in “experts,” believing credentials=credibility. During the COVID pandemic they were among the most zealous about enforcing COVID restrictions, most angry when others didn’t want to, most likely to call for harsh measures against dissenters, most friendly toward censorship and punishment, and now most forgiving of the experts who misled them.
Their faith in experts would be charming, but for how dangerous it is, and how difficult it makes it for the rest of us trying to formulate rational policies based on actual evidence, not regime propaganda.
One tends to think of men as being the most friendly toward authoritarianism, and there certainly can be a tendency for men to gravitate toward masculine strong men in times of crisis.
But AWFLs proved themselves to be zealous advocates of tyrannical measures during COVID, and a substantial fraction of the people calling for violence or a coup against Trump seem to be unhinged AWFLs whose world seems to be crumbling.
People who are, when they are getting their way, perfectly nice and charming, seem to become unhinged harridans when they lose control over their environment.
Obviously not all AWFLs are awful, nor are all liberals bad people. I have plenty of liberal friends and family who are smart, compassionate, rational, and decent, but who still believe the Pravda Media so see the world in vastly different ways than I do, which means tremendously divergent from reality. (I don’t claim to grasp all of reality, but even I knew Fauci and company were lying in March 2020, and that Biden had no brain).
How to fix this problem? I haven’t a clue. When people can live comfortably within an illusion that makes them feel good and self-satisfied, nothing will dislodge them until those conditions change. No amount of discussion will make it happen.
It will change when reality slaps them in the face, one AWFL at a time.
