By John Norberg, First Things - Americans have woken up to the fact that they are being told to act, think, and invest in a certain way. The undercurrent of American rebellion and independence just won’t stomach that, even less so now that the status quo has changed. Not to mention, ESG investing was a terrible idea to begin with. If you intentionally limit your options for investing based on a shaky philosophy of woke totemism, you will likely find it handcuffs you and your firm to an ever-changing chimera of values and taboos that may or may not align with financial success for your clients. It appears some of the world’s largest financial institutions found this out the hard way and decided to make a hasty exit—after all, one cannot deny the age-old truth that money talks.