We’ve reached peak woke. Its virtue-signalling champions are being humiliated.
The excesses of radical students, ‘victim’ celebrities, and Left-wing companies have become laughable
The University of Oxford’s decision to intervene against its snowflake students in support of freedom of speech is a further indication that the tide might finally be turning on wokery. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Prof Martin Williams, one of the university’s pro-vice-chancellors, said what we’ve all been thinking for months.
Telling students that they must be prepared to “encounter and confront difficult views, including ones they find unsettling, extreme or even offensive,” the Oxford don has effectively thrown his support behind Prof Kathleen Stock, a leading feminist, after sections of the student union tried to stop her from speaking at the Oxford Union because of her gender critical views.
It should not need explaining to this country’s supposedly brightest minds that there is no place in a world-renowned seat of learning for the no-platforming of lawful speech.
The student union had flirted with stopping the Oxford Union from taking a stall at this year’s freshers’ fair, but in a victory for common sense – and a sign that the new Free Speech Act might be having an impact – it will now be allowed to canvas for student members come September.
As 40 other Oxford dons pointed out in another letter to this newspaper earlier this week: “Universities exist, among other things, to promote free inquiry and the disinterested pursuit of the truth by means of reasoned argument.”
Again, this shouldn’t have to be explained to A* undergraduates any more than the biological fact of there being only two sexes. But the important thing is that the if-you-don’t-agree-with-me-then-you’re-cancelled brigade have been defeated. At last, the adults appear to be taking charge. And the woke minority – who pose as “victims” of the system in an attempt to demand special treatment from the rest of us – have been humiliated.
In fact, it has been a good week for woke humiliation. Take the unedifying spectacle of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ “near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi” in New York on Tuesday night. The couple claimed that they had been the victims of a “relentless pursuit” over the course of two hours which had “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers”.
The reality, however, appears to have been rather different, with the NYPD describing it as a “challenging” transport situation and a taxi driver who was involved in the “chase” commenting: “I don’t think I would call it a chase. I never felt like I was in danger. It wasn’t like a car chase in a movie. They [the couple] were quiet and seemed scared but it’s New York – it’s safe.”
The Sussexes have made themselves look farcical by appearing to exaggerate what happened. Was it a bid to reinforce their victim status at a time when their approval rating is on a par with that of the Duke of York? When asked about the incident, Rishi Sunak was suitably dismissive of their histrionics, saying: “Cars in New York are not really my priority.”
The world has now woken up to the fact that the Sussexes aren’t the victims of anything but their own oxymoronic desire to be famously private. After gaslighting us all by claiming that they hadn’t accused the Royal family of racism when everyone who watched their Oprah Winfrey interview knew that they had, they have now been forced to dial down their highly inflammatory language to talk of “unconscious bias” after rapidly losing credibility.
But even the all-white-people-are-unconsciously-biased routine is losing its schtick, with Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, this week pointing out that: “White people do not exist in a special state of sin or collective guilt.” If you’d said that at the height of the Black Lives Matter campaign, you’d have been driven out of public life. But now the public can see the sorts of extreme claims so often made by BLM activists for what they are: nonsense with no grounding in objective fact.
Meanwhile, up in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has continued to make a fool of herself over the SNP’s ridiculous policy of allowing Scots to change their legal sex simply by signing a declaration. First we had the furore over double rapist Adam Graham initially being sent to a women’s prison on the basis that he now calls himself Isla Bryson and wears women’s leggings. Following a public outcry, he was sent to the male estate.
Now the trans debate has been reignited in Scotland following the case of transgender butcher Andrew Miller, known locally as “Amy”, who admitted abducting a schoolgirl while dressed as a woman and then subjecting her to a series of sexual assaults at his home. The case drives a coach and horses through the SNP’s claim that making it easier for male predators to access female-only spaces does not pose a risk to women or girls. It is not a touching story of “transition” but of a man, posing as a woman, to lure a young girl into his car.
Here again, then, the so-called “progressives” are facing a moment of truth. For the reality is that the majority of Scots not only oppose gender self-identification but have also become even more sceptical of gender ideology than the English. A recent poll by UnHerd and Focaldata found that 31 per cent of Scottish people strongly disagree that transgender women should use women-only spaces, compared with 28 per cent in Wales and 27 per cent in England.
Those areas in strongest disagreement are almost all in Scotland. Which just goes to show that you can only push people so far before they start rebelling. The SNP will deservedly lose seats as a result come 2024.
Then there are the woke companies, intent on ramming their marginal and often extremist beliefs down their customers’ throats. They are turning themselves into laughing stocks.
Bud Light is now reportedly planning a complete rebrand after featuring a transgender influencer in a disastrous advertising campaign. Sales of the US beer dropped by 23 per cent after the company ran a promotion involving Dylan Mulvaney showing off bottles with her face on them to commemorate her “365 days of girlhood” series in which she documents her gender transition.
Traditional Bud Light drinkers were appalled and said they would switch to another brand. When Mulvaney featured in a Nike bra advert, this also prompted calls from consumers for a boycott of the brand.
Adidas this week faced similar flak over its baffling decision to advertise women’s swimwear using a model with a penis. The move rightly prompted criticism from campaigners for women’s equality in sport, who argue that the use of a biologically male model for a women’s swimsuit creates the impression that the sportswear brand is trying to “erase” 51 per cent of the population.
What is the lesson of all this? For too long, the majority has been cowed into thinking they have to go along with every ridiculous claim spouted by woke activists and virtue-signalling celebrities. They have been told that you would have to be a bad person to ask questions or stand in opposition.
But in the face of ludicrous bids by the rich and powerful to play the victim, by activists to erase J K Rowling from her own books and remove softly spoken and thoughtful academics from campuses, and by businesses to dress men in women’s swimming costumes, the majority can no longer remain mute. They are finally finding their voice. DT.
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