Opinion
Viral address from “world’s most prestigious debating society” explains how the Woke approach is ruining the world
This week, world media attention is focused squarely on Davos, Switzerland where political, business, and media “elites” have flocked (flocks of private jets mind you) to discuss and propose initiatives to combat climate change.
Politicians and business leaders will propose higher taxes on fuel (and therefore higher prices for everything), quicker transitions away from affordable energy (also ensuring higher inflation), and on top of all this, taxes on the regular citizens of first world nations to support the green energy goals of everyone else. The media will dutifully report on these as planet-saving solutions, and they’ll talk to environmental protestors who are complaining these changes aren’t happening quickly enough.
Unfortunately none of these are real solutions to climate change. We know this because the first world has already been working with these solutions for years. So far we’ve managed to fail completely to reach goals set decades ago, while sparking a world-wide inflationary crisis by meddling with what used to be a relatively inexpensive global energy supply. To this point the losing battle to lower emissions has resulted in historically high inflation, and we’re only getting started. Lower and middle income families already struggling to pay for groceries, fuel, heating and AC, have a lot of suffering to look forward to. And we’re the lucky ones in the first world.
So, instead of looking to Davos for answers this week, we’d be wiser to take in some incredible conversation courtesy of the Oxford Union Society.
The Oxford Union is “the world’s most prestigious debating society.” Last Thursday (January 12) the Oxford Union held a debate titled “This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far.” The presentation of one speaker in particular is sweeping the planet, having amassed several million views on various platforms over the weekend.
In his short address to the Oxford Union, comedian Konstantin Kisin quickly, and effectively explained why woke culture (and the Davos crowd) must completely change its approach if it wishes to make an impact on climate change. His conclusion must be noted as it can be lost in the comedic nature of his argument. In the end, Kisin says, “There is only one thing we can do in this country to stop climate change, and that is to make scientific and technological breakthroughs that will create the clean energy that is not only clean, but also cheap.”
Here’s the viral presentation, Konstantin Kisin speaking at the Oxford Union for the motion “This House Believes Wokeness Has Gone Too Far”.
From the Oxford Union
Initially used as a term to empower awareness of systemic inequalities in society, wokeism is now a deeply divisive term. The media’s perpetuation of woke culture has made this term a buzzword. For some, being woke is part of the antidote of acknowledging the instruments of oppression. For others, it is a dangerously absolutist ideology, a sort of reverse McCarthyism, corroding liberal society and encouraging self-imposed victimhood. Is the ‘war on woke’ a legitimate phenomenon, or a reactionary distraction from the real problems being ‘woke’ addresses?
ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Oxford Union is the world’s most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. Since 1823, the Union has been promoting debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.
From the X account of Andrew Scheer
Mark Carney spent his entire life promoting the carbon tax.
Now he’s trying to scam Canadians out of billions and to do it he’s put a whole crew together.
It could be the biggest con job in Canadian history. Only YOU can stop it! pic.twitter.com/1DyywsynBN
— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) February 22, 2025
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Newt Gingrich
In an amazing show of courage, Vice President J.D. Vance offered an intervention for some of our European allies.
That is the best way to think of the two historic speeches he made in France and Germany last week.
In Paris, Vice President Vance pledged the United States would do whatever it takes to lead the world in the development of Artificial Intelligence. He went on to assert that Europe’s automatic response to regulate technological change rather than adapt to it was doomed to fail.
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Vance warned the Europeans that the Trump administration would retaliate to protect American high-tech companies from being fined and regulated by the European community.
Then, Vance went to the Munich Security Conference. It is the annual meeting of European leaders concerned about defense and threats to peace. The Vice President shocked the Europeans by launching a frontal assault on the decay of their political system.
As Vance put it:
“But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.”
He then went through a litany of specific complaints about the behavior of different European countries. They ranged from failing to control immigration, suppressing free speech, and Brussels seeking to control and define futures of independent countries such as Hungary and Romania.
The leading French newspaper, Le Monde (their equivalent of the New York Times) asserted that the American Vice President was declaring “ideological war on Europe.”
Le Monde was right. The European elites have been decaying for at least two generations. They hide behind their privileged status and take ideological positions that feel good but are destructive. Europe’s failures are devastating for most everyday Europeans.
I have personal knowledge about this. I have a Ph.D. in Modern European History – and I have lived in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. As a young Army dependent, we were living in France when the French Army came back from Algeria, killed the French Fourth Republic and brought back General Charles de Gaulle to establish the Fifth Republic.
It is now the longest serving non-royal government in French history.
The European elites value each other’s opinions more than they value serving the people of Europe. The European elites live in a fantasy world of green policies that destroy industries and jobs, welfare policies which destroy the work ethic, and immigration policies which undermine the popular culture. They simply hope for a peaceful world without a strong military.
Meanwhile, state enforced speech codes protect Islamic extremists at the expense of local citizens.
The result has been a steady decline of European culture, economic development, and defensive capacity.
The Afghan Islamist who wounded more than two dozen people and killed a mother and her two-year-old daughter with a car two days before the supposed security conference signals the willful avoidance of reality at the heart of the elite European worldview.
To be clear, I admire European civilization. I believe America is far stronger and safer if Europe is healthy and capable of growing and defending itself.
I hope vice president Vance’s intervention at least starts European elites thinking about what must be done to revive their continent.
For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.
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