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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 11, 2024

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Either come up with more persuasive arguments for why wokeness is right, or stop pushing it altogether.

I don't see how the "woke leftists" would much like either choice, and why they shouldn't seek instead a third. Per the first, you note that "the Irish public for the most part find wokeness bizarre and alienating," and it's not clear that there's really much in the way of "more persuasive arguments" that could change this. But they're not going to "stop pushing" what they believe is right, no matter how unpopular it is with the "resolutely backward, parochial, latently Catholic, Massey Ferguson-driving, GAA-playing" peasant masses.

So why isn't the answer to instead just keep pushing "wokeness," as hard as necessary, over the objections of the masses?

So why isn't the answer to instead just keep pushing "wokeness," as hard as necessary, over the objections of the masses?

We nominally live in a democracy. It would have been a lot easier for the Irish government to maintain the façade that they have a mandate from the general public if they hadn't just pushed a referendum which was rejected by 70% of the population. You could practically view the outcome of this referendum as a vote of no confidence.

Seems Leo is getting some stick because apparently some of the Fine Gael senators went to the match instead of turning up to vote Yes/Yes in the Very Important Vital Urgent Referenda 😁 Maybe you're not their mammy, but are you their daddy, Leo?

And now he's having a dig at Fianna Fáil. To be fair, I think Willie O'Dea probably did vote No/No, but coming out about it now is cute hoorism. But then, that's my party for yeh!

I love the fact that there's a Wikipedia page for "cute hoor".

Ireland's contribution to world culture 😀 It exists everywhere, but we put a name on it. "Cute" comes from "acute", which is why you get English/Hiberno-English sayings like "as cute as a fox" meaning as "clever, sly" not "adorable, fetching".

So why isn't the answer to instead just keep pushing "wokeness," as hard as necessary, over the objections of the masses?

Because if they don't actually have the tools to indoctrinate the next generation, the eventual, inevitable result is revolt and White Terror.

That's a big "if", though.

the eventual, inevitable result is revolt

You may be familiar with the JFK quote "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Well, IIRC, it was the late Kontextmaschine over at Tumblr who added to this, speaking of the Vietnam war, that making violent revolution inevitable, then crushing it by force when it happens, can be a viable strategy.

Let the unhappy masses revolt… then, like in the German Peasants' War, crush them utterly with overwhelming force despite their superior numbers, then crack down harder on the survivors.

Yeah, I don't think the Irish state is quite that.......competent.