(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A sociology researcher’s observations about the timing of the “Great Awokening”—the point at which the fringe Left’s obsession with identity politics and racial grievance metastasized into the party’s mainline—suggest the toxic mindset may be driven by a deep-state propaganda campaign.
In an Aug. 20 post that went viral of her recent appearance on CNN, author/activist Batya Ungar–Sargon pinpointed the surge in wokeness to 2012, the halfway point of Barack Obama’s presidency.
“Starting in 2012, sociologists began picking up on a new trend: White progressives were becoming obsessed with race, slavery, and white supremacy—largely driven by the liberal media exponentially increasing its focus on these issues,” Ungar–Sargon wrote in the post.
It likely comes as no surprise to any who lived through the Obama era that the diva-in-chief whose race-baiting rhetoric set back decades of civil rights progress was behind the parallel deterioration of his own political party.
However, what may be shocking is the possibility that this leftward lurch was all by design.
Ungar–Sargon’s revelation that this trickle-down progressivism moved from the media to wealthy, white elites tracks with recent revelations by the Twitter Files, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others showing that intelligence agencies may have deliberately infiltrated private media companies to sway public opinion.
Gabbard recently suggested that around the same time, the CIA may have revived its controversial “Operation Mockingbird” program after Congress pushed through the Smith–Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, effectively repealing a 1948 ban on letting news outlets openly propagandize American citizens.
The Smith Mundt Act banned domestic dissemination shortly after this video was made. The ban was lifted in 2013. This video has been relevant since. Pay attention. pic.twitter.com/kg8u0N8DjP
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) August 15, 2025
Some observers have said the corresponding uptick in terms like “racism,” “sexism,” “homophobia” and “transphobia” was part of an orchestrated coup that “enabled our soft regime change international tools to be aimed inward against our own citizenry.”
It had been brewing for a while but my guess is around 2012 when Obama changed the Smith-Mundt Act which enabled our soft regime change international tools to be aimed inward against our own citizenry.
This ushered in the rapid rise of Woke and massive negative shifts in race… pic.twitter.com/grXPx4GCEt
— Thodin (@therealthodin) August 17, 2025
Simultaneously, the Obama regime was weaponizing other aspects of the government, setting the stage for institutions like the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service to target political rivals and ideologies.
The DOJ under Attorney General Eric Holder aggressively sought to infiltrate universities, demanding that they comply with radical regulations or face enhanced scrutiny.
Through his “Operation Choke Point,” Holder even threatened banks and financial institutions, demanding that they de-bank customers like gun and oil companies whose profits came at the expense of the leftist agenda.
The ESG movement soon followed, with woke investors like BlackRock taking the lead and demanding that companies comply with politically correct demands or have their stock values tanked.
Yet, the use of propaganda presents the strongest evidence yet that the Obama administration deliberately intended to wage a color revolution in America—and nearly succeeded but for President Donald Trump’s landslide re-election in 2024.
Trump’s DOJ is reportedly empaneling multiple grand juries to investigate and prosecute Obama’s bagmen, and Gabbard has vowed to shut down Operation Mockingbird as public opinion of the mainstream media reaches unprecedented lows.
Conservative commentator Alex Jones on Sunday offered what he said was a sneak preview of what lies ahead based on his conversation with a top DOJ official.
Sunday Live: Alex Jones Has Received Exclusive Mega-Bombshell Information From The DOJ That Will Shake The Foundations Of The United States – Tune In Now As He Exclusively Lays Out The Details – – Must-Watch/Must Share! https://t.co/ZcGyrn08ZW
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) August 24, 2025
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
