Postmodernism was born in 2007

Very good. From A Visual Demonstration of How Fast the NYT Got Woke by Alex Tabarrok.

A series of charts from the New York Times showing the frequency of use of particular terms closely associated with postmodernism. Fro example, Social Justice:

Click to enlarge.

Across multiple such terms, there is a break out between 2005 and 2010 when the favorite terms of postmodernism enter the language of the New York Times.

Causal mechanisms?

Critical mass of the ideas at universities, finally bursting out?

Release of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and the modern era of social media?

Decimation of ranks of experienced journalists (due to digitization) and replacement by Ben Rhodes journalists?

Obama administration opened the Overton Window on postmodernist ideas?

All are conceivable. Even plausible. Perhaps a concatenation of these mechanisms together. Perhaps some other force.

Now we know that the flood of postmodernist talk started 2005-2010, perhaps we can focus on why.