Picture: iStock
They’re everywhere. From your favourite social media channels, to your radio, television, and even your comic books. There is simply no escaping the Ultra-woke.
They are called many things. The Twitterati, Influencers, or tastemakers, and they come with hordes of followers who hang on to their every word – even when said words fly in the face of all scientific and historical evidence, or simple common sense.
Brash, outspoken, highly-militant, and completely averse to the consumption of any source of information that doesn’t come packaged in 280-character chunks, a poorly researched blog post, or a catchphrase-laden speech, the Ultra-woke are the future of our species. This likely means our species has no future.
Ultra-wokeness requires of its adherents to be on a constant lookout for any and all slights (real or imagined), with the resultant sleep-deprivation leaving them incapable of forming anything resembling a coherent argument. It robs them of their ability to discern any shades of grey, rendering any subject in simple black and white terms. Nuance be damned.
This results in attempts at engagement swiftly devolving into an exchange of ad hominem attacks, appeals to authority (with authority based on who has the higher follower count), or a disdainful dismissal. “Ok’salayo…”
Just how low the bar has been set for our levels of social discourse is evident in discussions around those who supposedly “sold out” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
What Mama Winnie’s staunchest defenders forget to mention, or are probably unaware of, is that there was compelling evidence in support of many of the accusations levelled against her. These accounts were tested, in courts and at the TRC, and held up.
There is no doubt that she suffered greatly at the hands of the former government. She was, however, also a human being. A human being with flaws, who made mistakes. Denying this, and whitewashing her legacy is disingenuous.
Almost as disingenuous as those who defend former president Jacob Zuma by pointing at the theft and avarice of the apartheid generation. They question why the apartheid criminals were not prosecuted, while the eternal victim, Jacob of Nkandla, has to suffer at the hands of the legal system – and their “profound” questions get retweeted and shared thousands of times.
What they forget to mention is that the apartheid looters thrived under an immoral, illegal system. A system which saw its end through a negotiated settlement. As part of the settlement, it was agreed that some of the looters won’t be prosecuted, to prevent a prolonged, violent war.
It was also agreed, through the ballot, that we will enter a new era where that kind of abuse of the system will never happen again.
So, maybe we need to encourage more people who have read actual books to take to Twitter and other social media platforms, in order to drown out the ignorance.
Or maybe it’s too late. We already have a social media influencer holding the nuclear codes in the most powerful nation on earth. Maybe we should pray that Donald Trump uses these codes to wipe out the human race. Maybe the cockroaches will do better.
Ok’salayo…
Earl Coetzee.
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