Just to keep you up to date with the UK's charming PC, Woke, Snowflake, Junior band of Dungaree-wearing 'Liberal', vegan, left-wing students (have I left anyone out?); they are now attacking the very core of English Literature.
1. There is much concern amongst the literati about the University of East Anglia's dep't of 'Literature and Creative Writing'. They have declared that ENGLISH is the 'Language of the Colonialiser', and they now insist that the University 'Decolonialises it's courses'..... Well, they would wouldn't they!
These charming 'pinkie' profs and undergrads are even questioning the study of Shakespeare, as, apparently, he represents 'White Cisgendered Privileged Male Authors', as well as other writers who represent the 'Privileged White Male Experience'.
I'm sorry if all this sounds like jumbled rubbish, but I am using their exact words.
2. On more Wokery; I've just been listening to some 'Linguistics Professor' who claims that it is insulting to imitate regional or class accents. He gave all sorts of 'liberal-Wokery' reasoning and examples, and even suggested that the characters in 'The Archers' all used stereotypical class/intelligence/occupational accents; and this (he insists) must stop. I suppose we'll have to have everyone in Ambridge all speaking with the same 'received' accents. He would have had Walter Gabriel saying "I say chaps, would you mind frightfully giving me a hand with my muck-spreading....". Oh dear!
3. Not to be outdone, Leeds City Council are looking into the Yorkshire speciality 'Parkin' (a type of cake). It seems that they are very concerned by it being made with Ginger, Treacle, and Sugar, which are (of course) all products of British Colonial Expansion; and therefore EVIL. You really couldn't make it up!
4. And five trustees have recently quit the Vegan Society, because (yes, you've guessed it), it is 'institutionally racist'. It appears that 'Veganism' is 'cultural appropriation'. This British institution, founded by a British man, apparently uses foods and traditions from Africa and Asia. Personally I think the society should be closed down immediately; we cannot allow food racism, can we!
To quote that evil colonial-racist, Shakespeare, 'Cry God for Harry (the other one), England, and St George'..... Oh, and by the way, I shall be continuing to eat meat; which I suppose proves that I'm not institutionally racist, nor do I go in for cultural appropriation!
Cro, Britain is currently sinking deeper and deeper on a daily basis in wokery and cancel culture. It is a daily topic here.
ReplyDeleteYou quote from Act III of Henry V, but don't expect the woke BBC to ever mention St George's Day when it comes around. They are incredibly unpopular now...nationally, and are losing tv licence paying customers by the thousands. They must be dreading the up and coming Last Night of the Proms next month.....Rule Britannia and all that, something they tried to cancel last year.
So prepare for some major wokery and cancel culture if you really are determined to return to our shores and depart from your current idyllic and enviable surroundings.
It does make me depressed that a small group of people are determined to rid GB of all it's culture and history. There'll be a backlash before long; I'm sure.
DeleteIt isn't a bad thing that their virtuous minds are occupied with parkin and vegans. Saves them from trying to change the worlds climate for a day or two.
ReplyDeleteDon't watch the BBC, Sky or Channel Four.
I can see a Yorkshire protest group, with banners saying 'Save our Parkin'.
DeleteI'm hoping you made all that up and I can laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteSadly it's all TRUE. I could hardly believe it either.
DeleteDefinition of "woke": ALERT to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism.
ReplyDeleteSurely a good concept, don't you think, Cro?
I don't know where you get your intel from. If, say, what you relate is true then all there is to tell is that there will always be people who take an idea to the extreme. Maybe their way of actually getting the attention of those sleepwalking through life and society. Remember "Agent Provocateur" of the sixties and seventies? Barricades? Stuff that actually brought about change for the better? I shan't mention suffragettes lest you be scandalized.
As to wearing dungarees: Didn't/don't you? After all that's what people who toil the soil and painters wear. A bit like jeans and overalls. Workwear.
If your worry is about Shakespeare: Don't. He is alive and well. One of England's big exports.
U
I have been against injustice and discrimination all my life; I don't need some spotty Wokelet to tell me about it. Be very careful what you wish for; it is very easy to destroy, but much harder to build up again.
DeleteYou left out a word in your description of them...Arrogant...Ive never met one who isnt!xx
ReplyDeleteI apologise Debbi... I knew I'd omitted something.
DeleteI read somewhere recently an excellent academic argument in favor of cultural appropriate - but do you think I can find it to share it now? Sorry - and it really made sense too.
ReplyDeleteAn exchange of cultural studies and observations is surely a very good thing. What is not, is to kick and shout about Hummus being 'Middle Eastern', and therefore not what Brits should be eating. That Zuri woman (vice chair of the Vegan Soc') is nuts.
DeleteYou must cease speaking in French immediately. Maintenant! (oops). From now on you will conduct all your business in France in English. Compris? (oops again).
ReplyDeleteMacron would have me Horse-whipped. He wants the whole of Europe to speak francais.
DeleteBut surely, if you're not French, that's cultural appropriation.
DeleteTry explaining that to him!
DeleteI am pleased you numbered your points.
ReplyDelete1. I hope they are suggesting Esperanto and not French.
2. Wot you sayin guv? Tha takin the mickey of me?
So sorry old chap. No offence meant. Just a joke.
3. There is really nothing to say.
4. Nothing wrong with copying the vegetarian diets of foreigners really, is there? Perhaps qualify like copyright if you are writing about your vego diet. *NB This diet has has been practised in the world since man, no men and women walked on this planet."
re No 4. Eshe Kiama Zuri is the 25 year old Vice Chair of the Vegan Society. She's one of those who insists on being referred to as They, and Their; and they describe themselves as black, queer, disabled, working class, and non gendered. What else would one expect. Mad as a hatter!
DeleteI have nothing against 'woke' as it pertains to being aware of injustice, and actively working against it. I have nothing against liberal, being that I am regularly told that I am one. But they all need to keep their mitts off my hummus and shut up about my chile poblanos. For crying out loud. Countries have been sharing their food traditions ever since man began to travel. What is the protest about that for pete's sake?
ReplyDeleteThese folk actively look for something to complain about. If you want to be a vegan; be one, and leave everyone else alone. I shall continue to make hummus every week, with no feelings of shame or guilt.
DeleteThe notice has been around for a while now but, 'George Orwell's 1984 was meant to be a warning not a guide'.
ReplyDeleteThey've been reading the 'New Edition'.
DeleteI had to check the date for I thought for a moment we'd just sailed into April.
ReplyDeleteIt might well have been an April Fool's joke; it's all that crazy.
DeleteThe world has gone mad...is it just us oldies who think so? Is that an ageist comment?
ReplyDeleteThe people who want everything to change are mostly young. They have no appreciation of heritage or pride; they simply want to wreck!
DeleteThose dread colonialists! I'd say along with your steak, you should enjoy a baked potato and a side of tomato while you still can. Wash it down with a cup of tea, too. Surely all these appropriated foods will soon go by the side.
ReplyDeleteWhat does it leave us? Fish-n-Chips?
DeleteWhat about all the Asian pianists, violinists and other musicians who play classic European music? Isn´t this cultural appropriation at its worst?
ReplyDeleteAll this nonsense is based on hypocrisy, but somehow it only works one way. It's OK for a black girl to have dyed blonde hair, but it's not OK for a white girl to have dreadlocks.
DeleteThere's much to think about over this wokery.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know what group invented pants?
'Pants' sound very sexist!
DeleteThis also will pass. A new cause will emerge and off to the races they will go. Causes of all kinds seem to drive some people.
ReplyDeleteA new movement will come and sweep it away... it has to!
DeleteThe mind has to do acrobatic somersaults around this pomposity of thinking. All this revising of the past, everyone knows that's impossible, just move ahead with the future.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Accept that certain things were not perfect, but maybe they were the making of the Colonial world. The 'Empire' brought wealth and civilisation to much of the world. No need to apologise.
DeleteI thought about going into a comment of reasoned argument but decided that 'bollocks' was shorter.
ReplyDelete