War on Woke

In the middle of the twentieth century the word ‘woke’ was synonymous with ‘getting it’; being aware of the ways of the world, especially in relation to black Americans being ‘woke’ to the prevalence of racial prejudice. This form appears to have first been inspired by Marcus Garvey when he exhorted “Wake up, Africa!” and went on to influence movements like Black Power. Typically, today, the word has been taken up by the usual white saviours – they just can’t leave things alone, can they?

To the woke, woke means: 'aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice'. How could anybody be against that? How? Well because the fields of racial and social justice are rotten through with theorists who cling to the doctrine of Critical Race Theory, a politically motivated attempt to make white westerners ashamed of their own existence. To the woke, anybody coming under the catch-all title of ‘anti-woke’ is a thuggish racist and extreme far-right bigot, and there they end their intellectual inquiry. Ain’t nobody woke don’t know dat.

The assumption that anybody who rejects the political reframing of our history, the replacement of actual events with confected accounts of the malign intent behind every single event, is an uneducated blackshirt would be risible, were it not soaked up so readily by the impressionable minds it is deliberately intended to influence. The young, the different, those who have no comprehension of or engagement with the realpolitik. Anybody confused with or at odds with the world can embrace this almost religious fervour, declare themselves woke and thus give themselves a moral boost without engaging in any of the problematic process of thinking it through

Once converted, these self-declared intellectual superiors are quite the worst at recognising the cognitive bias of their own thesis. They are immune to reason and paint over everything with a varnish of racial disinformation; lapping up every morsel of indignation, every sleight, every raised eyebrow, and in the process of digesting all this, churn out ever more atomised ways of perceiving injustice. And any attempt to counter their arguments is seen as ‘reactionary’ and backward. They see nothing wrong in their smug self-righteousness.

Whereas, what we see is the world we live in portrayed very differently on screen – the overwhelmingly mixed race couples in adverts, the white male as neanderthal throwback, the endless ranks of BAME commentators, listened to in reverence. Every aspect of our lives is now judged on ‘diversity’, which almost always means no safe space for white people, especially those with English as a first language. We are the white oppressor, and we must accept this without question.

Maybe this is all deliberate, to give us supposedly privileged white folk a taste of our own medicine; to make it impossible for us to rationally question the narrative. And whenever the more outspoken, the more intellectually rigorous among us dares to speak out, they are portrayed as rabble rousing, club wielding Nazis. So, not only are we to accept all the blame and make obeisance to the new black princes, we have no right to reply, or to point out how possibly noble objectives have been appropriated to cause harm.

Some of the more vociferous spokespeople for various black lives organisations seriously call for the total eradication of ‘the white race’ and expect no censure for doing so. Yet any protest is loudly shouted down and the regular cancelling of sports people, comedians, writers, scientists, politicians and anybody who dares to speak out with reason and fairness is testament to which side is really the oppressor. It seems to me that any neutral observer must see that the anti-woke reaction is an entirely rational response to a dogma which is out of control.

Authentically White

I was a bit late to the party on this one, but apparently Luther, as played by proposed black James Bond Idris Elba, is not black enough: BBC diversity chief Miranda Wayland says that ethnic minorities are portrayed inauthentically, even, apparently, when written by people from those same backgrounds to parody their own portrayal. As for Idris Elba, the vicious, far-right, ‘so-called comedian’ Andrew Lawrence asked, did he not leave a long enough trail of abandoned illegitimate children? Did he not deal drugs, etc? My favourite suggestion from the Twittersphere was that the series should perhaps be renamed ‘Looter’. Boom!

As another Tweeter remarked “gypsies on the BBC aren't gipsy enough. Chinese people aren't Chinese enough. Black people aren't Black enough. Asian People aren't Asian enough. African people aren't African enough. And White people are racist!” This is becoming a tedious and unimaginative theme now, yet the crazy dogma of critical race theory is still swallowed wholesale by many in the establishment who have yet to work out a decent counter offensive

Black Lives Matter cultists are incensed when white people suggest, even hint, that black people may be different. But when we insist that they are not, that they are equal, that they are the same as everybody else, we are accused of… of what, exactly? I’ll try, but I’m not sure this will fly: Non-indigenous ethnic citizens of the United Kingdom are the equals, in every respect of their white peers, but need – nay, demand – special treatment in order to not be unequal. Is that anywhere close to the mark?

If you have no black friends you are racist, but if you have black friends you are also racist? I believe this is where the industry of perpetual offence has currently planted its flag. To pretend there isn’t a problem is a problem, but to try and address the problem is, to say the least, problematic. There isn’t much to work with here, so it is little wonder that when the establishment tries to aim at the moving goalposts of minority identity they lose the penalty shoot-out every time.

Fortunately, as always, the left has a solution; just agree with everything negative that anybody has to say about the country, its people, its government and anybody in any position of power or influence. To which end Labour Party supporters have been shining beacons of bigotry as they have spewed out their hatred of the society which has given them so much, yet demanded so little of them.

From nasty, snippy jibes aimed at the Royal Family as it mourns one of this country’s greatest ambassadors, to Sadiq Khan announcing his intention to rename the overground network to better represent ‘diversity’, it is as if the left has completely abandoned any semblance of sanity. When Londoners have to commute to work on the Kampala Trail to downtown Nyasaland Junction on the Bin Laden Express, does the little khant think people will harbour warm, fuzzy feelings towards dusky despots?

We've always had black faces...

I rather think not. The fight back will not, it has been seen, be led from Downing Street. Nor will it feature in any Parliamentary sessions in the future, our politicians having long ago abandoned any attempt to counter the lunacy. Instead, the British people will do what they have always done and quietly ignore the injunctions to behave any differently towards outsiders. Fit in and we will accept you; fight us and we will not.

The Russians Are Coming!

Wherever you stand and whatever your personal investment in the notions of free-thinking, critical thinking, rational debate and the like, sooner or later you will come across people who believe you are the irrational one. This past year has been an orgy of indulgence in the most fanciful of theories; lockdowns have given those idle hands plenty of opportunity to spin the most bizarre of conspiratorial webs.

While rational conspiracies undoubtedly exist – to collude, to hide the truth, to smear, to monopolise, to maintain power, to unseat power - most weapons-grade conspiracy theories begin with a fallacy. Probably the most fallacious of all are those posited on world-wide mind control, on subjugation of the population. For some reason they believe that wealthy capitalists want us all held as slaves.

Surely, what capitalists want is for as many people as possible to participate in consuming what they produce, whether that be physical products, services, or even just ideas. They have no need of the troublesome and probably expensive business of shackling anybody to anything; humans have shown themselves all too ready to clap themselves in ideological irons. What capitalists want is lots and lots of gullible people with money to spend.

Whether it is politics, race, religion, sport or whatever, humans will quickly adopt a tribe, and once that tribal bias is formed it is a rare and exceptional individual who can fully break free of the biases it brings. Being rational, thinking humans of course, we instantly dismiss any rebuttal of our concerns as evidence for the same concerns. After all, if we are so unimportant, why would anybody take the time to try and deconstruct our fears and our antipathies? But if, tight-lipped, the supposed conspirators refuse to debunk the theories, that must itself be evidence of a cover up.

And just as ready as we are to accept complicated explanations that confirm our preconceptions, we are quick to dismiss simple explanations that go against them. And so the perfect conditions for disinformation, it seems, are baked into our very nature. Offer somebody the hand of friendship and a body language expert will manage to turn that honest gesture into a deceit. Show the receipts and somebody, somewhere will concoct supposed evidence of a forgery. In a reversal of Occam’s fine razor, the simplest explanation suddenly becomes Russian meddling.

Maybe we want to believe we are cleverer than we are, and that any simple solution has to be the smoke and mirrors of the media? In a world where we have been persuaded to assume that malevolent intent is behind every person in office – shilling for the elites, being useful idiots for the communists – we have lost the concept of simple trust. Does the homeless man on the street corner assume that every coin in his cup is somehow proof of the plot to keep him down?

Perhaps there is nowhere a more insidious twisting of the human psyche than the promulgation of critical race theory. ‘Ebony and Ivory’ was released forty years ago, for goodness’ sake, and yet here we still are. And with each passing year, white people – a minority in the world – are more boldly painted as the bad guys. No matter what concessions are made, apologies offered, or reparations paid, it is not enough. To be white is to be racist, and to try not to be racist is more racist still. I reckon the Russians are behind it all, mark my words! 😉