By Jennifer Oliver O'Connell | Redstate.com
Konstantin Kisin at the Oxford Union Debate on Has Woke Culture Gone Too Far (Credit: Oxford Union)
Konstantin Kisin is a satirist, podcaster, author and political commentator and on his “Triggernometry” podcast, he and his co-host Francis Foster focus on these subjects, as well as the WOKE culture that has overtaken the Western world.
At 40, Kisin is an early Millennial (or Xennial, as they are now being categorized). So, he has lived some life, had a taste of career success, and has a family. Some of the things that indicate that your views on how life and the economy works is not merely theoretical. Kisin also was born in Russia and emigrated to Europe, domiciling in Great Britain. So, he has not always benefited from living in the Western petri dishes where WOKENESS germinates and takes hold.
Which is what makes him, and this debate speech he gave at The Oxford Union Society so compelling. The Oxford Union is a membership club that encourages debate among its members as well as celebrity, political, and guest speakers. Kisin was debating, Resolved: Has Woke Culture Gone Too Far? And Kisin’s epic counter response is the reason this video is getting so much play.
Kisin started his treatise by expressing that he is tired of talking about WOKE culture and its targeted attacks to destroy freedom of speech, as well as its false flag operations to create “equity,” which is merely racism in a cheap jacket:
“I am so tired of talking about Woke culture. That’s why it’s gone too far more than anything else.
[…]
“No, No, Free speech is not some right-wing reframing of whatever, it’s the foundation of Western civilization. Upon which this civilization is built and the alignment values that led to it.
“The only way to deal with the problem of racism is to treat people on the content of their character. And nothing else. And the fact that WOKE culture seeks to overturn that is a new form of racism that we must all oppose.”
Kisin warned that we will destroy ourselves if we continue to allow this erosion of our culture and our confidence in Western values.
Then Kisin turned his focus on Climate Change, directing his speech toward Millennials and Gen Z—at least the ones who he felt might be, “open to rational argument.” Although he knew he was speaking to young people who honor their feelings above any rational truth, Kisin made this fact-based point.
“[Climate Change will be decided] by poor people in Asia and Latin America who don’t care about saving the planet—because they’re poor.”
Kind of hard being concerned about the future of the planet, when your future only extends to your next meal.
Kisin outlined the logical argument that a country like Great Britain, which makes up two percent of carbon being emitted into the ozone, working to mitigate its carbon footprint does not matter a hill of beans. The continents of China and South America are focused on not starving, staying warm, and staying alive—carbon footprint be damned.
“One-hundred-and-twenty million people in China do not have enough food. That means their immune system is breaking down because they do not have enough food.
“Where do you think Climate Change ranks in Xi Jinping’s list of priorities?
“You’re not going to get these people to stay poor. You’re not going to get them to not want to be richer.”
Kisin even had the unmitigated gall to insist that there was only one solution to Climate Change.
“To make scientific and technological breakthroughs that will create the clean energy that is not only clean, but cheap.”
Cue the soup can and Greta Thunberg outrage.
Kisin’s closing argument on why WOKE has gone too far is one for the books.
“And the only thing that wokeness has to offer in exchange is to brainwash bright, young minds like you to believe that you are victims. To believe that you have no agency. To believe that what you must do to improve the world is to complain, is to protest. Is to throw soup on paintings,” he said.
One of the propaganda arms of the movement had this to say about “climate anxiety:”
In 2020, environmental non-profit Friends of the Earth estimated that over two-thirds of young people (18-24 year olds) experience climate anxiety. In fact, Aaron Kiely, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth, suggested: “as the group of people most likely to see the worsening effects of climate chaos, it’s not surprising that a surge of younger people is increasingly concerned, especially in the face of government inaction”.
When government inaction brings in so much money, and gives them tools to exact control over the population, why should they change? Kisin points this out, then rocks it Old School: nothing beats hard work, ingenuity, and seeking to build toward a better future.
“And we on this side of the house are not on this side of the house because we do not wish to improve the world. We sit on this side of the house because we know that the way to improve the world is to work. Is to create. It is to build. And the problem with Woke culture is that it has trained too many young minds like yours to forget about that.”
Ahh, there’s the rub. Minds programmed to fixate on things that they cannot control, and forget the things that they can control and that truly matter. Building on the foundation already laid, rather than working to tear it down.
The horrific statue unveiled in Boston this weekend, that is supposed to commemorate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King is an example of this. This WOKE generation seeks to tear down Confederate statues and homages to our Founding Fathers because of their offenses and the offenses of Western culture, while replace them with something that is even more offensive and fails to uplift the culture, let alone extend it.
That is no better evidence on how WOKE culture has gone too far. Perhaps Kisin’s debate speech is a sign that we are finally seeing its coming end.
