We’ve all become just a little more self-righteous. The edge has been taken off what we say and what we do. A lot of that stems from the seemingly incessant, gastric gassing of the politically correct underbelly of UK society.

People are afraid to engage on challenging topics for fear of causing offence. Being offended has become the Kevlar of the thin-skinned or those with under-developed arguments. It’s the get-out-of jail to put someone instantly onto the back foot. It’s a shot of Dutch courage for life’s invertebrates.

And it’s allowed all manner of lunacy to remain insufficiently challenged.

Hark at one of the candidates for the Labour leadership position claiming this week that ‘Labour needs a woman leader’.

No, love. They just need a good one.

And I’ll apologise for my apparent sexism if you do for yours. Well, actually I won’t. Because if you can’t wind someone up occasionally, what is the world coming to?

What indeed? I’ll tell you. For those who make a living in the world of comedy – and this is an important feature of all societies (of course, Germany excepted) the darkness of wokeness has proved to be particularly ominous. Stand-up for example slinks along the fine line between politesse and scandal. Or in some cases is symbiotically humorous with the level of outrageousness of its content and delivery. It’s all good fun, which is what it intends to be.

Make no mistake, self-righteousness and hypocrisy go hand-in-hand. If they didn’t, then we’d have the largest, swelling, throbbing monasteries in the world. We’d also have the largest working-class socialist movement in Europe.

We have neither. Instead we have streets paved with debauchery and arguably the largest aspirant middle-class propelled by left-wing rhetoric. There’s quite a difference, and it’s a disappointing one. But the wokeness persists.

In some ways, it’s the same as every work scenario where employees play it safe and challenge nothing because they fear sanctions and in the worst cases, defenestration. Best to firmly file in behind a process, even if is based on informal norms.

No wonder we are struggling to break boundaries. Aside from the infringement of trying to police what people think, of course. It’s almost as if they’re looking for confessions, or at least commitments of allegiance to whatever cause it is that they themselves don’t actually agree with.

Because all these hip, right-on dudes cannot possibly believe in all the causes that they espouse, can they?

Why not just accept that a lot of people don’t care about alleviating poverty or saving the environment and may even want to say their piece. And that’s just as valid as you saying yours. But just draw the line at that point. Please don’t sit in judgement, or worse still seek to have them sentenced. And that applies to all sides.

Just let everyone get on with it. Why are people so affected by the fact that there are different opinions or perspectives out there.

Remember a time when people used to wear poppies in November to remember the fallen? Now increasingly people wear poppies to show everybody that they are part of a wider group who have appropriated the sacrifices of the fallen.

And woe betide you if you’re not wearing one. But their frothing outrage is really their risk-free contribution to the sacrifices made by earlier generations. They’ll happily appropriate the glory of the memory because they’ll not be drowning in mud and shit anytime soon.

They of course miss the supremely ironic choice that world wars were fought precisely to give people freedom of choice in the face of fascism.

But that’s the virtue-signalling of wankerdom. They just don’t get it. Living inauthentic lives for show on the backs of others who frankly don’t give a toss.

Pass me another Pride rainbow wristband please.

Which reminds me of one of my favourite spectator sports. Watching the over-the-top celebrations of Pride by straight people, who think that they actually understand the struggle. They ping LGBT around like they own it. Then can’t understand why some LGBs question the inclusion of Ts in the discussion. Crestfallen. like gamblers who put it all on red and see ball land on black. Some of them don’t understand the difference between sex and gender, let alone the intricacies of the political backdrop.

And I don’t either – but then again, I don’t look to appropriate the struggles of others for my own self-validation. Agree with equality? Yes. Treat people fairly? Of course. Protest about or even celebrate something that I don’t truly understand? No. End up looking a dick when my sincerity is exposed as a sham? No, that’s why I don’t do the former.

Guys, you can show solidarity simply by demonstrating your support for your equality through your actions. Don’t try to show it by appropriating the struggle. You’ll look a turd. If fact, you will be a turd.

And therein lies the weakness of wokeness. It’s a performance from those who are too spineless to simply get their shit together.

Of course, there is a line that can be crossed. And that will typically be when the manner in which you assert your rights to freedom of expression infringe upon the rights of others. It’s baked into law. Sadists can’t claim a defence of their rights to beat and whip others. Unless of course – even with consent from their gimps – they have outraged public decency (which would be a wider concern if they did their deeds in public).

But an opinion or a view, or even a joke that you don’t like? Absolutely not. While you might find something personally offensive, so what? I won’t feel insulted if I see you eating fried eggs. I hate the sight of them and the thought of them. I find them wholly offensive. But I’m not the one eating them. I exercised my right to abstain when I ordered my meal. But you carry on, mate, and enjoy.

You see, the great thing about life is that we have the most amazing censorship system in the world.

Free will. You can always walk away or turn the off-switch. You can disregard something and carry on with what you are doing.

Wouldn’t it be the greatest tragedy for all the woke heroes to wake up one day and realise that they’d spent their lives simply correcting and militarising the lives of others?

And made themselves look like utter berks in the process.

Now, did I tell you the joke about the three transsexuals and the wide-mouthed frog?

unsplash-logoDevon Janse van Rensburg