SOCIAL justice advocates have transitioned into ruthless tyrants and oppressors ~ more interested in emotions than facts, according to a leading Australian academic.
Dean of Law at Melbourne’s Swinburne University Mirko Bagaric has described woke culture as a threat to western society.
- It is only when our wealth is seriously depleted that the pursuit of knowledge will once again become the principal aim of society.
- Truth is no longer binary but depends on the extent to which people can stimulate the feelings of others and drown out opposing views.
In an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper this week he described Leftist ideas as being among the “stupidest in history”.
“The woke command to placate the feelings of select groups and fanatically pursue trendy causes while rejecting empirically grounded knowledge,” he wrote.
DAMAGE
“The damage done by making feelings more important than facts is unfolding in real time in the cradle of wokeism: the US.
“Defunding the police is incontestably one the stupidest ideas in history.”
Prof Bagaric said criminologists had long known that the best deterrent to crime was a high police presence.
“The incredible thing is that the ‘defund the police’ movement met no effective, expert pushback explaining how this policy would result in the preventable deaths of thousands of innocent people, many of them African-Americans.
“Many did not speak up because they knew they risked being ‘cancelled’ from their jobs and social circles.”
Prof Bagaric laid much of this fear on the abuses flowing from social media.
“The noise emanating from millions of daily online posts hampers the ability of many people to distinguish between fact and agenda,” he said.
THUDDING
“Truth is no longer binary but depends on the extent to which people can stimulate the feelings of others and drown out opposing views.
“The thudding hypocrisy of wokeism is that the advocates of social justice causes have become ruthless tyrants and oppressors.”
He said their gagging of free speech was too high a price for allowing emotions to rule.
“Suppressing free speech causes more damage to society and individuals than any emotional hurt, real or perceived,” he said.
“Stifling free speech and thereby compromising the search for knowledge is too high a price to pay for allowing rule by emotions.”
WEALTH
Prof Bagaric said the wealth of western societies had allowed woke culture to flourish.
“It’s only when this wealth is seriously depleted that the pursuit of knowledge will once again become the principal aim of society,” he said.
“Until then, get ready for some suffering.”PC
Articulate, succinct and sadly correct.
So many have reverted to the sentiments of the kindergarten playground! Criticism is good and most mature adults are able to sort the grain from the chaff.
Good on Professor Bagaric for calling out the immature, emotive time-and-money wasters, the promoters of ‘wokeism’, that wholly ridiculous garbage which only encourages the jelly-babies of society to feel victimised and – very unfortunately, actually stops them growing a spine!
The public will start to push back against the ‘wokes’ when they realise how much money they are starting to cost them and the community. ‘Wokeism’ is a disease which derives from affluence, but we need to ensure that they don’t cost us our freedom, given the rising threat posed to us by China. We can start by refusing to cancel Australia Day, and by saying ‘Merry Christmas’ as opposed to ‘Happy Holidays’.
Of course Morrison will betray us, it’s in his nature.
I agree Scomo has not taken on the fight about culture and values, without which our Western society would end, to the maggots of the left. That is his biggest failing; that and not supporting the fossil energy sector. But apart from Trump this is every conservative leader’s failing: they don’t fight. And the left is fighting; talking will not do the trick and scomo is not even talking.
But albo and the left will be infinitely worse: never forget that.
Do you really think Morrison is in charge?
How did it go when Tony Abbott spoke out?
For an educated person, this guy seems mildly intelligent.