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The Woke Oblivion: An Exercise in Reactionary Conservatism

31/3/2020

 
Issue 5, Volume 17

MATTHEW LI

Reading through ‘The Woke Oblivion’, I was greeted with the mental image of Alex Jones screaming at me: ‘the water is turning the frogs gay!’ Kaitlin Bennett started waving her handgun as I skim through the part about International Women Day, and when the bit about Acknowledgement of Country came up, Tomi Lahren appeared in my peripheral vision and wagged her finger at me. 

​‘This is the death of freedom,’ they announced in grave unison. 
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"They turn the freaking frogs gay" Image: Alex Jones/Infowars
As there is light there will be darkness, and as there are SJW’s crawling the internet for virtue points to score, there will be conservative reactionaries seeking to fearmonger the general population against invisible enemies. 

This particular ‘rationalist’ is doing something extremely brave. They flung themselves onto an open fire just to save the virgin from her miserable fate. They are the hero at the climax of a film, when they offer their life for the sake of the world. Stitch on the red ‘I’ and let it be known – an ‘iconoclast’ walks amongst these sacred halls! 

Okay I’m done.

I would not have answered in jest if this isn’t one of the worst pieces of writing I have read. In fact, I might have considered responding seriously if the Rationalist’s argument wasn’t so poorly made.

This peculiar piece laments the dearth of political differences in MLS in a way that is almost comical. As someone who identifies as a libertarian, I was almost sympathetic to the Rationalist’s point of view if only it didn’t resemble the Facebook comment section of a Sky News video. 

Allow me to explain:

‘But men…’ 

If the only time you talk about men’s right is to bash on women’s right organisation, then you probably don’t really have a point. You provided no evidence as to why women’s right and recognition no longer need to be acknowledged except for one flimsy throw-away line about graduation statistics. With no source! One only needs to open up the newspaper to see another life lost to domestic violence. The ‘lad’ culture entrenched in Australia cannot be defeated by a degree from our University. 

‘I would like to acknowledge…’

Saying the Acknowledgement of Country is a way to ‘elevate one race above another’ is…laughable. Just…I have to laugh. The only retort I can come up with is the galaxy brain meme. 

Like, how is one measly minute at the beginning of class time supposed to usher in a new age of Indigenous supremacy? Hello? I believe you have the right not to participate in it. I mean, I suppose if you feel so strongly about it, maybe you can take that minute to take a selfie or reload your Facebook page. It’s a free country after all, but ‘preserving racial differences’? Screw on the tinfoil hat! My guy, it’s a PowerPoint slide. I just…big brain energy over here.

If your point of view was to simply lament the left-wing bubble we live in, that offers absolutely no room for debate or nuanced discussion, then I’m right behind you. Full steam ahead, Captain! That’s what I’d say. There is a dearth of political differences (openly) being discussed at MLS and I for one would love to see more libertarian/conservative points of view being expressed and discussed in earnest. 

Instead, this reads more like one of those pieces of writing created by a bot that was forced to watch 100 hours of something, but instead of a movie it’s like…the front page of reddit/auspol or something. I don’t know, I don’t use that site. 

All it consists of is consecutive knee-jerk reactions to non-existent problems with no actual effort to express oneself in a way that is legible, let alone convincing. 

Try harder next time, my dear Rationalist.

Matthew Li is a second year JD student.

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