Rita Panahi: Just like his activism, Cummins’ understanding of the word ‘woke’ is comically clueless

Aussie test cricket captain Pat Cummins says he doesn’t know what “woke” means but he’s now learning an important lesson about actions and consequences.

Pat Cummins has his fair share of fanboys in the Australian media thanks in part to his overt leftist activism, whether it’s taking a knee for neo-Marxist group BLM or railing against fossil fuels.

But many cricket fans feel differently.

Look at any Cricket Australia post concerning the test captain and the comments are invariably mocking Cummins and his hypocritical and sometimes incoherent grandstanding.

Cummins is learning an important lesson about actions and consequences: not only are fans sick of politics intruding into sport, but corporates are waking up to the risk activist athletes pose to their brands.

Pat Cummins is overt in his leftist activism. Picture: Getty

Cricket Australia should be hot property, but right now it doesn’t have a major sponsor to replace energy provider Alinta, which will end its $40m sponsorship deal prematurely in June. Alinta made the decision after it was revealed that Cummins had voiced objections to the deal.

Why would any sponsor spend millions to have its brand trashed?

But Cummins claims his global warming crusade – which doesn’t seem to extend to his lavish lifestyle and gigantic carbon footprint – had nothing to do with the sponsorship.

Cummins also claims he doesn’t care about fans calling out his political posturing. In a puff piece in the Nine papers this year, he whined about being called woke. “I don’t even know what ‘woke’ means. If anything, some people would say it’s a good thing. It’s a label, it means nothing,” Cummins said.

Cummins voiced objections to the Alinta Energy sponsorship deal. Picture: Jason Edwards

So, Pat doesn’t know what “woke” means but it’s a good thing but it also means nothing? Just like his activism, Cummins’ understanding of the word is comically clueless. Let’s help him out and provide a few definitions.

This one is succinct and accurate, describing being woke as “a state of awareness only achieved by those dumb enough to find injustice in everything except their own behaviour”.

Author and mathematician James Lindsay has a more technical description: “Wokeness is a fusion of the critical theory school of neo-Marxism, which is a form of identity politics and radical activism that has a very particular worldview that separates the world into the oppressed and oppressors.”

But perhaps the most eloquent definition comes from Elon Musk: “Wokeness is divisive, exclusionary, and hateful. It basically gives people a shield to be mean and cruel, armoured in false virtue.”