It's not entirely his fault. Nor is this Woke Bae Complex limited to men — women are far from immune. Most woke baes are people who are accustomed to occupying a position of authority in whatever room they happen to be standing. Not to mention, the very celebration of their wokeness must be wildly disorienting: How confusing would it be to have everyone congratulating you just for being an empathetic human being all the time?

But a good guest — a good ally — amplifies the concerns of the people to whom a cause actually belongs. They don't dominate the megaphone with their own perspective, because they recognize that it's not their voices that need to be heard. I'm not saying that all woke baes are guilty of snatching the mouthpiece from the people with whom they've allied themselves. Nor am I making a case against woke baes in general, who generally have their hearts in the right place even if their execution could use recalibrating.

None of that changes this fact, though: While a woke bae may be a deservedly honored guest at the party, they get to leave at the end of the night. And so the difference between being a woke bae and an advocate is that little sliver of self-awareness: the latter is mindful of the fact that it is not their party and that they can leave any time they want to. Woke baes might be willing to stick around and lend a hand with the cleanup. But the truth is that they could call it a night at any time; the truth is that, if they wanted to, it would be easy to just head home and go back to sleep.