Woo-woo rose as a counterbalance to failed technocracy yet still aligned with capitalism

Evidence

These New Age practices took on the moniker woo-woo, which originated in rationalists’ pejorative name for pseudoscience. Such rationalist critiques began to feel as outdated and shrill as the liberal triumphalism of the Obama era. With technocracy delivering nothing but a hypercapitalist economy and the chaos of Trump’s presidency, woo-woo emerged as a potential counterbalance. Manifesting, astrology, and other mystical practices offered not just solace but also a sense of agency. Most critically, woo-woo aligned perfectly with capitalism, as magical thinking often became a tool for building profitable personal brands and working toward future fortunes. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 602

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Marx’s broader ‘omnivore monoculture’ frame — woo-woo as personalized consumption that dissolves into the same flattened market identity rather than opposing it. — connects to: The technostructure faced a spiritual backlash before its economic collapse — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 205
• QUESTION: Is woo-woo-as-brand merely another instance of Marx’s ‘everything becomes signalable consumption,’ so that even apparent counterculture folds back into omnivore taste?