Encountering the woke

Encountering the woke: the experience in Stroud

Kevin Towell and Richard House in conversation

Richard House [RH]: We’ve had a roller-coaster engagement with woke ‘cancel
culture’ for several years here in Stroud, Kevin. Can we start with some background?
Kevin Towell [KT]: Pre-covid as a Corbynite activist I dreamt that We The People might
topple the 1% and wrest back the wealth and power they’ve usurped from us. The ‘woke’
movement appeared useful champions of minorities who might sometimes have things a
bit harder than the rest of us, although intersectionality, ‘victimhood Olympics’ thinking
always struck me as potentially divisive and disempowering.
RH: The freedom movement certainly defies simplistic left/right pigeon-holing. Was it
your experience of organised ‘woke’ opposition to our street stall and The Light paper
here in Stroud that first led you to seeing woke differently, and less favourably? – or did
you already have concerns?
KT: The woke movement claims to champion minorities – a superficially laudable aim.
Yet as the covid ‘vaccine’ roll-out gathered pace in 2020–1, a NEW minority – the
unvaccinated – were othered and demonised by skilled propagandists and nudgers.
Branded as diseased, antisocial, science-denying, covidiot, plague-rat, granny murderers
and worse.
Then segregation. It was already clear the ‘vaccines’ didn’t prevent transmission, yet in
various countries the unvaxed were banned from bars, cafés, nightclubs, international
travel, even grocery shops. Selective lockdowns. Fines. Purges. Here was an almost
archetypal illustration of state-backed minority persecution unfolding all around.
Yet where were the woke? Where were our self-appointed defenders of minorities? Why,
cheering the persecutors! Hypocrisy, much? Even before I was involved with The Light
and the Stroud street-stall, one of them accused me of ‘standing with the far right’ for
praising leftists Debbie Hicks and Piers Corbyn’s now renowned attempts to rally
Stroud’s opposition to covid tyranny.
RH: It’s tough for those inhabiting the libertarian/anarchist left that former comrades
whom we previously assumed were critically minded, and sceptical of establishment
narratives and corporate abuses, pretty much entirely bought the covid-con – becoming
‘The New Establishment’ in the process! They behave as if they’re the only people with a
critical moral compass about society’s ills. Tell readers about the behaviour of the
‘Community Solidarity Stroud District’ organisation, who’ve been at the centre of this
Stroud cancel culture.
KT: Isn’t there something Orwellian about the way words are twisted? ‘Community
Solidarity’ sounds oh, so noble – yet these cancel-warriors and thought-police behave
appallingly. We’ve endured a relentless (and seemingly well-funded) campaign branding
us as anti-semites, fascists, homophobes, racists, oil-industry shills, conspiracy theorists –
every bad name under the sun. They mass-leaflet against the Light paper. They write to
venues to de-platform our speakers. They tried to persuade our local council to ban our
street stall, and they even tried to enlist Stroud’s Tory MP against us. They endlessly
nitpick and misrepresent the paper, and even where they might have valid critical points,
they’re blown out of all proportion and sensationalised.
All this has resulted in us being shunned and othered, regularly harassed and occasionally
even assaulted. They ostentatiously steal, rip up and even burn the paper. Once our stall
was entirely pushed over. They claim to be ‘anti-fascists’ and ‘anti-hate’ – yet their
actions clearly reveal the very living essence of all they claim to oppose. If they didn’t
have double standards they’d have no standards at all.
RH: Beautifully summarised, Kevin. Their latest leaflet claims The Light promotes
women ‘returning to the dark ages’ – a level of smearing that leaves me speechless. Some
even describe this woke mentality as ‘a mental disorder’. I don’t go there myself, but it
can sometimes be difficult not to…. We’ve heartily tried to have a facilitated
conversation with these people, to see if some rapprochement and common ground could
be found – jaw-jaw always being better than war-war in our peace-loving movement.
You were at the centre of that psychodrama – tell us briefly what happened.
KT: We initially doubted their good-faith, and they tried to portray that as unwillingness
on our part to participate. We did agree to the meetings, however; but their
‘representative’ then pulled out before the second meeting.
RH: Our freedom group has seemingly interminable conversations about how we might
have mutually respectful conversations with these adversaries. For me, always staying
open to the possibility of meaningful engagement is vital, and yet I also despair that it
will ever be possible – a tough place to be.
They also seem obsessed with the minutiae of ‘identity politics’, any contraversion of
which they seize upon to hector anyone who dares to contravene their politically correct
‘regimes of truth’ – akin to a kind of modern-day witch-hunt. Yet in the process, they
completely miss (or ignore) the bigger picture. Am I being fair in these observations?
Last words to you!
KT: Many were avid cheer-leaders of the covid tyranny, so continuing to seek truth and
reconciliation with them, as we do, seems more than fair. I could write a book speculating
on the strange psychology of the ‘anti-hate’ hatemongers and to be frank I often despair
of reaching mutual understanding with them, which saddens me. Yet they must walk their
own path; and perhaps if we show as much love and forgiveness as we can muster, it may
eventually bring healing. In the mean time, Marcus Aurelius’ Stoic wisdom is a comfort:
‘Tranquillity comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you
do. Not to be distracted by their darkness.’

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Submitted to The Light, September 2023

Kevin and Richard help to run Stroud freedom group’s Info-Hug street stall on Stroud High
Street every Friday and Saturday, from which, along with their fellow freedom campaigners, they
hand out 1,750 copies of The Light newspaper each month. https://independentviewpoints.net/