Why It’s no Longer Woke to be Woke

In a turnaround that surprised Wall Street, woke funds are no longer trendy. The savvy investors are staying away. 

John Horvat II | July 17, 2026

Not so long ago, the acronym ESG was trendy in investment markets. The woke thing to do was to invest in ESG-friendly funds. Their popularity promised a maximum return on investment with a commitment to woke ideals.

ESG stands for investing in corporations based on Environmental, Social and corporate-Governance factors. By adopting an ESG approach, mutual fund operators could deliver maximum return on investment while maintaining a minimal carbon footprint.  

Investors could virtue signal their support for LGBT and other social causes while making profits. Corporate structures could be made inclusive despite threats that such social engineering would affect productivity.

Best of all, ESG investment funds excluded all those things liberals love to hate: fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco, and alcohol stocks.

Everything has now changed with ESG. In a turnaround that surprised Wall Street, woke funds are no longer trendy. The savvy investors are staying away. Call it something else, but avoid the ESG tag at all costs. 

The heyday of ESG investing was between 2018 and 2021, when the trend took hold. Hundreds of billions of dollars entered this new market. At that time, the ESG juggernaut seemed impossible to stop. Wall Street giants like BlackRock and Vanguard put........

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