Woke must be destroyed, says Konstantin Kisin

Sometimes it’s best to be clear, even when it is jarring.

That’s why when Russian-born British commentator Konstantin Kisin declared that those pushing the “woke progressive project” are “the enemies of western civilisation”, it was a crystalising moment.

You and I instinctively know this. But bold speaking brings it out of the shadows.

I had the privilege of hearing the comedian-turned cultural commentator at an event organised by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney this week.

Most of us don’t like to think of fellow Australians as “enemies” and by “woke” Kisin doesn’t mean everyone on the political left.

But he does mean those who have derailed “sensible” left politics and taken it down a path of cultural Marxist identity politics where language is now weaponised against anyone who has a different view.

It’s a view of the world where the identity political narrative of oppressor-victim based on sexuality, gender or race trumps rational discussion and hence destroys freedom.

We need to “start talking about identity politics, and how the woke project is destroying Western civilization from the inside,” he said.

Children need to be “vaccinated” by their parents against this, in the same way his parents told him not to believe what the Soviet state was teaching him when he started primary school in the dying days of Russian communism before migrating to the UK.

He said the “woke progressive project” was “dividing people along racial and sexual lines in order to persuade some people that they're being oppressed, instead of encouraging them to see themselves as part of a society in which they have an unparalleled opportunity to thrive and succeed”.

It’s worth quoting Kisin at length from my notes at the CIS event.

“In many western countries diversity just means no white people. That's what it means, but it's kind of hard to argue against because it's diversity and it's inclusion. What does inclusion mean?

It means that anyone who disagrees is excluded. So, it's a very powerful tool for concealing what you're doing.

You can change legislation without having to legislate.

If you say that if you accept safety as the absence of violence, which is what we always used to understand it to mean, then laws around violence are very clear, or laws around safety are very clear. But once you smuggle in the idea that safety is ‘no one hurt my feelings’, then you are in a very different position.

And ultimately, there's no chance of a free society. Because if we can't exchange ideas, because safety is just a barrier. It's just protectionism, right? It's protectionism in a market of ideas. In the same way that economic protectionism creates problems.

And this is why I keep repeating this idea that these people are enemies, because the more I talk to them, the more I realize they are not using language to communicate, they're using language to manipulate.

And once you get that, it all suddenly makes sense. Why are they saying all these ridiculous things? It's because they want to manipulate you. They have no intention of engaging in some kind of battle of ideas.

As Christianity is pulled back, we are now in the grips of a new religion that offers no absolution of any kind whatsoever. You cannot do anything to absolve yourself of your straight, white, male privilege. You must just feel forever guilty. This isn't self-criticism, this is self-denigration, and it's designed for self-destruction. And these people, as I say again, are the enemies.