The British comedian and podcaster Konstantin Kisin helped win over the crowd at a recent Oxford Union debate on “wokeness” by focusing on the example of climate activists who prefer showy displays of victimhood, such as the defacing of priceless works of art, to pragmatic approaches to addressing the problem.
“There is only one thing we can do in this country to stop climate change and that is to make scientific and technological breakthroughs that will create the clean energy that is not only clean but also cheap,” Kisin said during his remarks. “The only thing wokeness has to offer in exchange is to brainwash bright young minds like you to believe that you are victims, to believe that you have no agency, to believe that what you must do to improve the world is to complain, is to protest, is to throw soup on paintings.”
My speech at the Oxford Union is finally available. The debate was "This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far".
As promised, I didn't hold back 🤣 pic.twitter.com/yV0bAPqAQB
— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) January 13, 2023
Kisin laid much of the blame at the feet of progressives for ignoring the environmental policies of non-Western countries such as China and India despite their status as leading global contributors of CO2 emissions.
“If Britain was to sink into the sea right now, it would make absolutely no difference to the issue of climate change. You know why? Cause the future of the climate is going to be decided in Asia and Latin America: by poor people who couldn’t give a sh** about saving the planet.”
Since the residents of developing countries will never sacrifice quality-of-life gains to combat climate change, the West should focus on innovating new technology that will make green energy cheaper, rather than pushing people to consume less energy, Kisin argued.
Kisin followed the prominent American public intellectual James Lindsay. Although Lindsay is an outspoken critic of wokeness, he argued against the motion. “It’s not just that wokeness has not gone too far,” Lindsay told the audience. “It cannot go too far.”
Prior to the debate, campus reporting revealed that Oxford Union president Ahmad Nawaz had faced stiff internal opposition for hosting the discussion.
One member, Kajaanan Vijitharan, told the university paper that the main reason for her departure “was that I could not justify serving under a President whom I believed to be morally reprehensible. One example that comes to mind is, when the motion ‘This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far’ was proposed, multiple members of committee … raised to the President’s attention that the motion pandered to a right-wing ideology.”
The debate resonated with a raucous audience that interjected occasionally to note objections and saw Kisin’s side carry the motion by a margin of 89-60, the Oxford Student reported.
Oxford Union, which defends the principle of free speech, is celebrating its bicentennial this year. The group reportedly held a motion on “the right to offend” earlier