That book seems so strange a hill to die on and the article gives it way too much leeway.

Actual elites with assets and power will do whatever makes them money and gets them status and as such they tend to back the winning social-cultural movement whether it be for or against saying the N-word. That was progressives before, and now - not so much.

Likewise working class people can suffer the uniquely modern hyper-exploitation of Amazon warehouse work regardless of if they’re for or against saying the N-word.

One’s convictions can be as sincere or insincere, it’s a tertiary rhetorical question, the ultimate point of a Left conscious of social axes of inequality is to create systems where it is disadvantageous to behave such that you perpetuate oppression. McDonalds saying they care about gay rights or whatever is not relevant other than as a sign of winning.

In practical terms whether this is “believing women” or stripping the police of certain privileges and placing checks and balances on them.

This is fundamentally a reaction to the USSR’s oppression of its people’s social freedoms.