Now falling asleep is a target of the left as campaign hits new heights of insanity
The coronavirus is a big enough challenge, but at the same time we are fighting a viral threat against ideas, free speech, open debate – and even taking brief naps, writes Tim Blair.
Opinion
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Scientists have identified at least six different strains of coronavirus. There are probably a similar number of equally destructive woke viruses.
Let’s first consider those coronavirus varieties. According to scientists at King‘s College London, the weakest forms of the coronavirus are basically indistinguishable from the common flu.
Those infected with the weaker coronavirus forms may not even register a fever. But the stronger forms are brutal.
“Gastrointestinal problems, such as diarrhoea, dominate the third category, whereas fatigue, confusion and ultimately respiratory problems are associated with the increasingly severe fourth, fifth and sixth categories,” the UK Daily Telegraph reported last week.
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This variance in potency explains why, in Britain, the US and Sweden, just 16 per cent of those infected with the tamer coronavirus end up in hospital.
Compare that figure to the nearly 50 per cent of maximum strength coronavirus victims who require hospitalisation.
Now let’s look at the woke virus.
In its more timid manifestations, the woke virus is no more noticeable or disabling than some light flu-like PC sniffling.
It’s annoying but survivable, like a typical episode of The Project or a prissy ABC presenter’s Twitter account.
But step it up to the third level, when a profound reduction in joint rigidity becomes apparent. Such is their infirmity, sufferers at this point routinely find themselves unable to stand during national anthems.
The fourth stage may include the following symptoms: donating to The Guardian, signing online petitions against Sky News advertisers, calling for historic product names to be changed and adding preferred pronouns to your social media details.
The fifth stage involves direct physical participation rather than mere online activity.
Everyone who marched in Australia’s Black Lives Matter demonstration is a Stage Five Woke Virus carrier, as is delightful little Xiaoran Shi, the Greens staffer convicted last week of spray painting “no pride in genocide” on a statue of Captain Cook in central Sydney.
Just as fatigue and confusion indicate a high level of coronavirus infection, the same symptoms are evident in stage six woke infections.
One telltale sign is a complete denial that any such thing as woke “cancel culture” even exists.
Sean Kelly, a former adviser to Labor Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard turned Sydney Morning Herald columnist, last week took issue with those who believe free speech and open debate are under threat.
Kelly wrote that those claims first emerged in the US and are now being repeated locally. “We should be cautious, in Australia, before casually adopting arguments from overseas,” Kelly warned.
So much for “Black Lives Matter”, then. Kelly next asserted: “Nobody ever gets cancelled here.”
Tell that to conservative activist Gavin McInnes, denied a visa for a planned 2019 tour, or to right-winger Milo Yiannopoulos, whose scheduled tour was also cancelled last year after the government banned his entry to Australia.
“Milo banned. Good,” Labor MP Tony Burke wrote at the time.
“There was already enough evidence to ban him which is why the department had already recommended he be banned. The Australian tours for the world‘s hate speakers must stop.“
Once more: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CANCEL CULTURE. There is free speech. You can say and do as you pls, and others can choose never to deal this you, your company or your products EVER again. The rich and powerful are just upset that the masses can now organize their dissent.
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) July 11, 2020
Kelly might also wish to consider the online campaign to drive Alan Jones from the airwaves, and continued harassment of conservative columnists by the Australian Press Council, among other groups.
“Debate on Twitter can be awful,” Kelly allows. “I am a white man, and get the least of it, and still I‘m nervous before tweeting, or publishing this column.
“On the other hand, shouldn‘t I feel nervous, before using my voice to enter the national debate? Isn’t that an appropriate manifestation of the responsibility that accompanies my privilege as a columnist?”
Timidity and preciousness are also indicators of the woke virus.
“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CANCEL CULTURE,” New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow screamed online the other day.
“There is free speech. You can say and do as you please, and others can choose never to deal this you, your company or your products EVER again. The rich and powerful are just upset that the masses can now organize their dissent.”
People don’t complain about the celebrity culture that allows them to amass wealth and influence, but they whine and moan about “cancel culture†that threatens to take it away. Do you ppl not see how craven and comforted this makes you look?!
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) July 11, 2020
Mr Blow is invited to consider the case of Patricia Simon, a theatre arts associate professor at New York’s Marymount Manhattan College.
Simon literally said not one word, but a 2000-name petition now demands she lose her job and be removed from the school.
Her crime? Simon was last week accused of falling asleep during an online meeting to discuss anti-racism measures.
She didn’t say anything racist. She didn’t do anything racist. All she did, according to her furious accusers, is briefly nod off.
Clair Rundhaug, a parent of a Marymount student, said Simon’s lack of interest in “the issue of racial justice & LGBTQ plus inclusion“ had been ”on display” in front of at least 150 students and other faculty members.
Nothing is more offensive to the woke than a sleepy person. For the record, Simon denies actually falling asleep. But why should it matter?
Cancel culture exists. It’s why statues are being torn down all over the world and why old television shows and movies are being edited out of history.
But poor old Hyon Yong Chol certainly no longer exists. North Korea’s former defence minister was reportedly executed in 2015 by anti-aircraft fire.
What had he done wrong? The 66-year-old fell asleep during one of Kim Jong Un’s interminable military pageants.
When dozing becomes a crime punishable by job loss or even death, you’d really rather take your chances with a dose of coronavirus.