Chris Rufo's Battle To 'Stop Woke'

Few activists ever affect political discourse and public policy to the degree that Chris Rufo has in the span of just a few years.

Rufo, the 38-year-old writer and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, received a personal note from President Trump after Rufo's appearance on Fox motivated the former president to sign an executive order banning the federal government or its contractors from conducting certain "divisive" diversity trainings—an action later reversed by President Biden. He stood beside Florida governor Ron DeSantis as he announced the "Stop WOKE Act," on which Rufo has consulted. He's advised state lawmakers around the country on k-12 and higher education bills. And after the Walt Disney Company publicly opposed one of DeSantis' education bills, Rufo published leaked videos of internal meetings in which one executive producer discussed her "not-at-all secret gay agenda" and a production coordinator referenced a tracking tool meant to boost the representation of trans and "gender non-conforming" characters. Boycotts of Disney ensued, and DeSantis eventually revoked the company's special governance district.

Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller discuss with Rufo his war on "woke," what further policy changes he seeks, and what libertarians should think about his objectives and tactics in the livestream embedded above.