Raising The "Critical Consciousness" Of Hamiltonians
Spec Opinion Shows How “Progressives” Have Lost Their Minds
This is a brief analysis of the opinion piece written by Andrew Hunter for the Hamilton Spec “Why some are more equal than others”. Andrew’s piece provides an opportunity to evaluate the world view of today’s progressive Woke ideologues. I encourage anyone reading this to first read the article. It provides an opportunity to understand the world view of the Woke, and why we should insist the ideology is not taught in our @HWDSB classrooms. I previously wrote a piece titled “Signs of Indoctrination”, which outlines the methods the Woke use to indoctrinate people into the ideology. It was written as a warning of what is to come if this ideology is pushed into K-12 classrooms. You can find both here:
Why some are more equal than others | TheSpec.com
Hamilton Schools Want Students To Learn Disrupt Rebuild (substack.com)
Andrew has clearly been indoctrinated into today’s “progressive” Woke ideology. In the opinion piece, he acts as a missionary to espouse the virtues of this new belief system, in an effort to raise the critical consciousness of Hamiltonians on what a terrible and bigoted society we live in. This includes; labelling our first Prime Minister as a racist, and scolding city officials for upholding his statue in a city park, identifying (frivolous) claims on how Hamilton HWDSB trustees suffer from racial “bias” (i.e. are racists), and accuses Hamilton’s faith based schools of preaching homophobic and transphobic values (no evidence provided).
The problem (as Andrew sees it) is “White Privilege”, “Patriarchy” or simply “Whiteness” as he likes to put it. The root of the problem is primarily associated with our colonial past, generations long ago. In essence, all white people inherited an original sin based on the colour of their skin, and must atone for these sins through collective guilt, incessant virtue signalling and acceptance of race-based reparations programs.
Andrew even attempts to deploy lessons from Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. Here, he gets it terribly wrong. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm and 1984 as a warning of what is likely to happen in collectivist societies which espouse utopian visions. Orwell’s writings were inspired by actual events from the Russian Revolution. Animal farm was written to illustrate what happens when the objective of a society is driven by an ideology which espouses equal outcomes (aka equity). The animals initially decide this is a noble and fair objective, but it quickly degenerates into conflict when they do not equally contribute to the productive capacity of the farm. Andrew tries to compare “Whiteness” to the pigs in animal farm which attain the top position in the hierarchy, but the pigs really are “Wokeness”.
The Woke are the ones attempting to secure power to undermine individual liberties and create a collectivist society. They are doing this by manipulating language, and silencing dissenting views just as Orwell warned. The Woke want to attain power so they can act as the central planners, and actively discriminate to achieve their utopian vision of society. The Woke are the ones which will cause our society to devolve into animal farm, as they (naively) believe it is possible to reconstruct society on a basis where claims of oppression provide preferential access to power. These claims will only escalate with such a perverse incentive structure.
As part of the article Andrew scolds those which partake in viewing opinions from @WokeatHWDSB, and Woke Watch Canada. He sees it as a sign that there is a serious problem with “Whiteness”. The reality is intelligent people have serious concerns with Wokeness. There is a reason people are seeking different views and opinions on this issue.
The progressive left has lost its mind to Wokeness, and Andrews article is proof of that. The Woke claim to be fighting hate, but in reality they behave as self-righteous narcissists which project it. The Woke hate our history, society, institutions, and anyone with skin pigmentation which provides “White Privilege”, including themselves. They see hate and bigotry everywhere. Societal disparities, invisible biases, and centuries old injustices are all the evidence they need.
The Woke solution? Simple. Just dismantle the “systems of oppression”. By that, they are referring to the very foundations of liberalism; individual rights, freedom of speech & expression, and the rights of parental guardians. They wish to transform our society into a Woke Theocracy where people are indoctrinated into abandoning their individuality, in favour of accepting membership into monolithic intersectional groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation etc. The following quote sums up the new Woke sensibility.
“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today.” - Thomas Sowell
There are undeniable injustices in the past, and some which persist today. No reasonable person could argue against this. The issue is that the Woke refuse to acknowledge any gratitude for the great society we inherited. Their world view of our predecessors is simply a story of injustices and exploitation. It is always a folly to judge the actions of past generations by the standards of today (especially Woke ones). Generations past lived in a survival of the fittest Darwinian environment. They were forced to make life and death decisions we would find unconscionable. In the opulence of modernity, people are more likely to die of causes related to obesity than starvation. Further, we must never forget the gratitude we owe to those which fought to secure our freedoms. The Woke never acknowledge this. They seek to strip those freedoms away, as freedoms simply uphold patriarchal privilege. Veterans, including those which paid the ultimate sacrifice are rolling in their graves.
The Woke grossly misrepresent the nature of our problems, and propose unjust and unsustainable solutions. The best way forward is to learn from our mistakes, not reverse and perpetuate them. Two wrongs do not make a right. However, that’s precisely what the anti-racists believe.
“The only remedy to past discrimination is current discrimination, the only remedy to current discrimination is future discrimination” - Ibram X Kendi - (How to Be an Anti-Racist)
The truth is that societal disparities are largely the result of different choices people make on how to live their lives. Groups do not all behave the same. Engineering programs are overrepresented with Asians, and Nursing programs with women. There are undeniable culture and gender preferences which lead to disparate outcomes. To the Woke, outcomes are the result “social constructionism” where it is assumed all people would want the same things regardless of gender, culture or other considerations.
While the Woke claim to be undertaking notable acts to fight discrimination, they are really undertaking an act of social engineering. The idea is to socially engineer a society which conforms with their utopian world view, as opposed to the aggregate of what people currently want. This is a fundamental issue which is lost on people with all of the confusing language the Woke use. It is also the root of the tyranny of the ideology, and how unjust and discriminatory it is. The objective is to dismantle the “Patriarchy” and “Whiteness”. Do we really want ideologues which preach this non-sense teaching our children, and running our institutions? My vote is a big no.
The Woke have been indoctrinated into a zero-sum neo-Marxist world view which preaches a theory of “Power Dynamics” between groups as being the root cause of societal disparities. The truth is the outcomes we see in society are largely the result of differences in the “Productivity Dynamics” between groups. I will write a follow-up piece to explain the reality of productivity dynamics, and the falsehoods of power dynamics. For now, I will leave you with this cartoon which illustrates how the left has lost its mind. The Woke progressive is in the bottom left calling everyone a bigot.
Written anonymously by a proud Canadian and concerned parent
“There are only two ways of telling the complete truth - anonymously and posthumously.” – Thomas Sowell
Quite good. A nice summary of wokism/SJW ideology. I think it best to attribute the source/creator of the political journey meme. Colin Wright
@SwipeWright
Thank you for this excellent article. Especially concerning is that wokeness doctrine is accepted by many Canadians - and in fact many become hostile when presented with logical, rationale information that refutes the fundamental tenets of this ideology. Wokeness is, in my opinion, an emerging, mutating religion. It’s’ believers and the mainstream media, government, educational, private sector and other institutions that have adopted and promote this damaging religion have demonstrated that they take no prisoners when encountering those of us who publicly speak against them. Based on their arrogant belief that they come from a position of moral superiority, they justify inappropriate, hateful policies and actions - at both systemic and individual levels. And so thank you WWC for your courage in advocating against this racist, sexist and destructive religion.