‘Wokeness’ has been weaponised in the war between Left and Right – and it ain’t pretty – Telegraph.co.uk

Does anyone really want to have their flag flown for them by Laurence Fox or Lily Allen? Do Laurence Fox and Lily Allen even want to be flying these flags themselves? Wouldnt they rather be making movies or albums? And is anyone outside of Twitter and the media really whingeing about wokeness, or are they just trying to get on with their lives the best they can, with kindness and decency and good manners? I suspect the latter is true.

Wokeness is not really a new thing. Before wokeness there was political correctness, and before there was political correctness there was politeness. These constructs have come about not as a way to punish the majority, but as a way to protect minorities.

As ever, a few people feel defensive about this narrative, and must make it about themselves. Hence the word privilege has some clutching for their metaphorical (and literal) pearls. How dare anyone presume to tell me I have not struggled!

But for all its inflammatory language, the phrase check your privilege seems to be less about having a go at white people, and more about asking them to uphold the values most of us were taught as kids anyway: to think of others who may not have been given as much; to stand up for people around us who have been unfairly treated; to remember that all humans are born equal but that sadly it is not always the case that all humans are treated equal.

Thanks to social media, it can sometimes seem that everyone is furious, that there is only the Left and the Right waging a war with one another. The casualties of this war are the vast majority of hard-working British people who havent got a spare minute for Twitter or the energy for Question Time; who dont really care at all about the royals, because they have their own family issues to be getting on with; who would love to have the luxury of being able to debate for hours about wokeness and privilege, but have got jobs to do.

Hard-working British people who, above all, value manners and politeness and kindness. Even in this day and age, is that really toomuch to ask for?

Read Bryony Gordon at telegraph.co.uk every Saturday from 9am

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'Wokeness' has been weaponised in the war between Left and Right - and it ain't pretty - Telegraph.co.uk