The Entitled Woke Left

Simon O’Connor
Husband, step-father, and longtime student of philosophy and history. Also happen to be a former politician, including chairing New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Committee.

Another week, another set of examples of ‘woke left’ entitlement.

What I mean by this entitlement is an increasingly explicit belief that only they (the woke left) have the right to speak freely, to exercise influence, to have power, and represent the community. 

Ironically, these are the same groups and people who talk a big game about power and how bad it is. Woke leftists (and even some that we could describe as woke right) have been quite successful around this, having for decades, argued that power is bad. We still see this in the latest New Zealand history curriculum where the third overarching theme is that our history is shaped by the use of power. This is an explicitly Marxist concept – stating that human history is solely driven by a struggle for power and dominance. History is not about relationships, nor seeking truth, or many other human drivers. The implication within this statement is that power is bad or, at the very least, it has been exercised by groups other than themselves (the woke left).

My observation is that many well-intentioned people and groups, often from the centre or right of politics, have drunk the Kool-Aid of this thinking and ‘abandoned the field’. They naively agreed that ‘power is bad’ and left their positions in professional groups, school boards, charities and the like. And guess who filled the vacuum? The woke and radical left, laughing all the way. Fundamentally, they do not believe power is bad – woke leftists only believe power is bad in the hands of other people.

The scornful reporting of recent government appointments highlights this very clearly. Criticism and disdain are the orders of the day when anyone is appointed who is not a left-wing activist.

The first example was the appointment of Philip Crump to the board of NZ on Air, responsible for funding decisions in the broadcasting and creative sector. Philip is a lawyer, writer, and commentator – probably most famous for his Cranmer’s Substack, where he wrote on political and cultural issues from a centre-right perspective.  Predictably, left-wing media such as the Spinoff have tossed their toys.  For them, his being anything other than a radical leftist is unacceptable. The sub-narrative is plain to see – the Spinoff and others believe that only they, and their mates on the left, should be on the board of NZ on Air.

Similarly, the outcry when Dr Stephen Rainbow and Dr Melissa Derby were appointed to the Human Rights Commission. Both are well qualified and able, but again, not left-wing enough for the luvvies. The hostile media campaign against them highlights a deep entitlement to running these organisations. For the left wing, when it comes to the Human Rights Commission, this is their ‘woke’ organisation and not actually an organisation for all New Zealanders. Consequently, appointments are either praised or attacked depending on a person’s left-wing credentials (or lack thereof).

Then there was the predictable cry of disdain when Richard Prebble was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal. Just like the Human Rights Commission, the woke left believe this is ‘their’ organisation. Be it the tribunal or commission, such organisations do not exist for society, as such, but only to promote left-wing views.  These organisations are to be co-opted politically; part of the ‘long march through the institutions’. 

It’s not unique to New Zealand of course. In recent days, there has been outcry directed at Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post.  His crime? Well, he instructed the Washington Post newspaper to not endorse any presidential candidate. On a point of principle and with a desire to restore trust in media, he thought it best that the newspaper report the news and not try and create it – or at the very least, not to act so blatantly partisan. That so many board members and staff at the Washington Post have resigned as a consequence of this ‘neutral stance’ tells you all you need to know of this media organisation (and others) – they are not there to report news, but to make the news in their left-wing image. 

It is worthwhile sharing a quote from Jeff Bezos regarding his decision. I think it is insightful but clearly at odds with what many of the ‘woke’ believe:

We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.

So while frustrating at one level to see all this outrage and entitlement by the left-wing, it does also serve a useful purpose. It exposes these individuals, reporters, and media outlets for the partisan and biased people they are. By shedding light on their own compromised motivations, we in turn are entitled to push back and call them out, while also working towards a more representative society.

CHECK THIS OUT

As always, I’ve been involved with a lot of other media, including with Family First and Reality Check Radio, where I host a regular show on Friday mornings from 10am.

One highlight was talking with Finnish MP, Päivi Räsänen, who – get this – has been charged with quoting the Bible under Finland’s war crimes legislation. I kid you not! Check our my interview with her below:

Loads of great interviews with guests on my radio show, but one that I found particularly timely was with Dr Reuben Steff about the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui, the recent SIS threat report, and what the result of the US Presidential election might mean for New Zealand.

This article was originally published by On Point.