Benjamin, I love that you both denigrate cancel culture, etc. and simultaneously argue it is a signal of progress!

But I am not sure I am convinced. Humans are social animals living in a world with finite resources. And a key game that all social animals play is a game of group power aggregation. A key strategy is to be among a largest faction who are committed to its members over non-members. If one can pull this off, then one can get an outsized slice of the limited pie.

Racism, nationalism, and religious affiliations thrive today in part because the help create groups with clear boundaries that can serve in this war. But paradoxically so can cancel culture and careful observation and ostracization based on pronoun usage.

..... so I argue this is all more of the same social animal behavior.... no progress here...

(though perhaps as kierkegaard would argue, adopting some ultimately unjustifiable framework of meaning for oneself (by faith) can indeed be progress for oneself.)

EDIT: wokeness is now an over-shoot. Still the social pressure toward tribalism is very very strong. One needs to do some overshoot in order to diminish that effect. (I am still pretty skeptical of this overshoot)