Last week I wrote that the left-wing was fundamentally about making all things equal in a race to the bottom: an ideology of the lowest common denominator. Obviously not all leftists thought that former Justice Minister Kiri Allan's thuggish behaviour was attractive, but that's because there's varying levels of commitment to the end goals. Sometimes people fall off the train when it moves too fast, and sometimes they're happy with the level of equality they see. "Progress has gone far enough," they may think. But the revolution never sleeps.
In a video for the "Common Room" and with a transcript republished on The BFD, Simon O'Connor MP claims to expound on the differences between "Left, Right, and Woke."
He does this with zero reference to the origins of the terms during the French Revolution or any coherent attempt at identifying a fundamental difference.
The traditional left, he claims, "believe in the importance of government; that through government rules and regulations, society can be improved. The rights of workers, the place of unions, better pay, and social services for all."
The traditional right, he says, "would often talk more about limited government; fewer rules and regulations; the importance of business; and allowing people to make choices for themselves and family."
The woke care about "identity politics" where "all that matters is what group or tribe you belong to" and they are "obsessed with what happens in bedrooms."
This is total poppycock, to put it nicely.
O'Connor's definition of "wokeness" could almost be applied to any genuine conservative, and maybe every human being who lived before WW2.
As many know, the traditional origin of the modern left-wing and right-wing struggle is from the French Revolution. Those loyal to religion and monarchy sat on the right-wing of Parliament and those who wanted secularism and equality sat on the left-wing of Parliament. It was the Ancien Régime vs the social revolution.
The libertarian who tweets under the moniker of "CatGirl Kulak" frames this as "equality vs quality." We see this idea expressed in employment when hiring the best person for the job is contrasted with hiring for diversity. I highlighted this behaviour in last week's column by comparing Kiri Allan with Dr Shane Reti.
This is why there are right-wing authoritarians who want big, strong governments and why there are left-wing libertarians who want anarchy: the real disagreement is anthropological.
Simon O'Connor wants you to think that the difference between left and right is just about "priority and emphasis" over the same goals. If only those pesky woke people who talk too much about sex and race would just go away then we could all go back to arguing about the important issue of our time: minor squabbles over economic management.
The difference between left and right is how we view human nature. Or as Lauren Southern once said, "All politics is a question of identity. All politics is identity politics."
The "woke" are those on the left who realise that liberalism is over. They're going to finish the social revolution. They're not going back to minor squabbles over economics. Neither are we.
The "Common Room" seems to run almost exclusively liberal National Party propaganda so it's possible the script was written by an intern and they just paid him to read from a teleprompter, but that would hardly excuse him agreeing to put his name to it. If after all that's happened in the past few years and this is the level of brainless nonsense you put out then what's the point? I sometimes wonder why all the so-called conservatives in National keep a low profile, but after reading this I'm glad they do.
If Simon O'Connor is going to be this unserious he should just shut up and go away.