To my fellow middle-class, white, especially but not exclusively male and middle-aged people: The wokescolds, the hysterical feminists and anti-racists, the impractical anti-business leftists, the unelectable anti-police-state and pro-environmental activists were all right, and the fact that we tried to be reasonable and practical and conciliatory rather than standing with them when they drew their bright red lines in the sand is the reason that the world now looks like *gestures broadly*.