Welcome to freshers’ woke
by Frederick Edward, TCW:
ARGUABLY the greatest triumph of progressivism is its control over the language we use.
By slicing, dicing and hollowing out various words, the linguistic ground beneath our feet is made unsteady. By the time we have regained our footing, a malignant host of new words, phrases and meanings have spread; in their wake the cause of common sense retreating once more.
Each modern coinage has its old counterpart. ‘People with cervixes’ were once ‘women’, for example. Recently I came across a new one: ‘mandatory consent’. This apparent oxymoron came to my attention courtesy of a friend who has started a degree at an Oxbridge college.
After arrival, he was soon greeted with an email from the college’s ‘women & non-binary welfare rep’, who was certain that all recipients were excited about the ‘jam-packed freshers [sic] week’.
In former times freshers’ week would be dedicated primarily to bacchanalia, but in the modern age it is reserved for ‘mandatory consent’ classes. What was being consented to – perhaps sex, drugs or even rock ‘n’ roll – was not made clear in the communication. Sex, as it later turned out, was the topic of discussion in a session hosted by a sexual health charity.
Anyone not keen on attending was told that they would be ‘chased up’ about the matter, as informed by the college’s ‘non-binary welfare officer’ (pronouns she/her). However, there was later the suggestion that people might legitimately not attend the workshop if sufficiently triggered by its contents. Only the largest of snowflakes have any hope of escaping wokedom’s chomping jaws.
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