For those who are attuned to the ongoing folly of “woke” culture, there seems no end to its pervasiveness. Indeed, in times of global crisis, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the woke brigade do not let up. This crisis has caused an insurmountable amount of (mostly justified) panic across nations, resulting in instances of mass lockdowns, calls for social distancing and travel bans.
No such measures, however, will be able to stop the spreading of the infectious woke parasite, which stops at nothing until its unsavoury polemics engulf all areas of discourse. It seems as though the woke crowd’s only purpose is to shove its vague conception of “social justice” into every facet of society; even if it is a global pandemic.
The Atlantic recently published an article in which its subheading claims that “racism” is spreading across the globe in tandem with the Coronavirus disease. This alludes to the pernicious woke notion that social prejudices such as racism (as vile as it is) are worse or just as bad as anything else the world has to offer, including pandemics. This is an absurdity.
The United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a frequent purveyor of the woke cause, recently called those who avoid Asian restaurants during the pandemic, “straight up racist”. Aside from the evocation of petulant adolescence, this statement has nothing to offer but a mindless platitude. According to most public health officials, avoiding points of close contact and social gathering, such as restaurants, is a wise thing to do – Asian or not.
In a recent tweet, Donald Trump referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus”, which unsurprisingly ignited the tinder of the woke hearth. While his choice of words was perhaps irresponsible and – dare I say – unscientific, it is hard to claim that Trump was attempting to “fuel bigotry” against the Chinese people, as one Al Jazeera article claimed.
This somewhat encapsulates the problem with politically correct thought, or lack thereof. By claiming that ethnically Chinese people need to be coddled and protected from the anything but life-threatening utterances of an irresponsible politician is ludicrous. This reasoning leads to its own form of prejudice, where those who supposedly “need” protection from speech are no longer considered equal moral agents, but part of a special protected class.
Similar claims of racism were made in regard to Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s decision to frame the Coronavirus as the “Wuhan Virus”, in reference to the Chinese city where it is widely believed the pandemic began. Ilhan Omar, an AOC-like member of the House of Representatives, responded by saying; “Viruses don’t have nationalities”. Perhaps they don’t, but most epidemics and pandemics have their origin in one place or another.
It goes without saying that Wuhan isn’t a nation, but a city within China, which renders the charges of racism evermore delightful in their stupidity. I wonder what the likes of Ilhan Omar think about the names “Lyme Disease” and “Zika Virus”, since they were named after regions within nations as well. The selectivity of these woke types is astounding.
It’s clear that those who are professing outrage against such trivial matters in times of great crisis are merely moral grandstanding in an attempt to further inflate their bloated egos. One must push back against the mental molestation from wokeism if they are to look for real prescriptions to very real problems in the midst of a global crisis. It is now clear that this movement is for anything but useful change.
As of now, hundreds of thousands of people have been infected by this virus with thousands dead. Countries are instituting drastic measures in order to keep their citizenry safe. But the woke brigade clearly doesn’t concern itself with wellbeing or tangible issues, its only currency is offence against apparitions of no longer prominent social pandemics. In the face of a global crisis, one must ignore this nonsense in favour of the betterment of the planet.
