How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement

In this book, Fredrik deBoer explores why passionate social justice movements frequently fail to achieve significant change.

He argues that these movements are often led by the upwardly mobile educated classes rather than the working class, leading to a focus on symbolic gestures over substantive policy changes.

DeBoer critiques the dominance of identity politics and the nonprofit sector, suggesting that organizing around class rather than empty gestures is crucial for driving real policy changes.

He offers an alternative vision for how society’s winners can contribute to social justice without taking over the movements and how activists can resist the influence of elites, nonprofits, corporations, and political parties.