An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West

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There are plenty of jokes in there. But there are some things I think are important to say, with serious chapters where jokes would be inappropriate." But it is not just that speech is being silenced, the meanings of words are being changed in such a way that public dissent becomes very difficult. After all, who would criticise diversity, inclusion, and safety? And who would be outrageous enough to question someone regarding the gender identity they affirm for themselves? Snowflakes, lizards and baseball caps: Edinburgh Fringe round-up". www.thejc.com . Retrieved 31 October 2022.

Konstantin Kisin Books - Hachette Australia Konstantin Kisin Books - Hachette Australia

Asking her how they ended up in these prison camps, what they did wrong, how they reacted to it, how they conducted themselves ... there were some very powerful moments that I hadn't known about before" he said. "It gave me another perspective." This attitude is not given to Kisin. Despite being a very funny man, he also has what so many Russians have: what Miguel de Unamuno described as “the tragic sense of life”. It gives him an important perspective on the West at a time when the West would appear to be throwing away so much of what it has achieved. Not least the freedom of speech and thought which Kisin had not experienced in the Soviet Union but had at least expected to find in the West. For all of the West's failings - terrible food, cold weather, and questionable politicians with funny hair to name a few - it has its upsides. Konstantin would know. Growing up in the Soviet Union, he experienced first-hand the horrors of a socialist paradise gone wrong, having lived in extreme poverty with little access to even the most basic of necessities. It wasn't until he moved to the UK that Kisin found himself thriving in an open and tolerant society, receiving countless opportunities he would never have had otherwise.The solution to the suffocating tendencies of ‘wokeism’ is to reinvigorate the Western tradition of both freedom of speech and the dignity and identity of the individual, both of which emerged uniquely in the West over thousands of years. Exactly how this can be done is not clearly set out in Kisin’s book, but the internet is a key player in promoting a genuine diversity of views that allows citizens to access alternative ideas to what they are fed in the mainstream media, and from their universities. It may also be time for those who appreciate the best of Western civilisation to focus less on criticising established institutions and more on starting their own.

Konstantin Kisin to publish debut book - British Comedy Guide Konstantin Kisin to publish debut book - British Comedy Guide

Is the West perfect? Kisin says no. But is it a darn sight better than its alternatives. Better than the ‘woketopia’ that so many elites seem to want to usher in? Absolutely, and in this book, part autobiographical, he argues why. In 2022 Kisin participated in one of the Oxford Union Society debates, arguing that the global climate crisis could not be solved by "woke" protests in rich countries but only by technological advances towards clean energy. [15] Author [ edit ] The term “political correctness” actually comes from Soviet Russia. It denoted a statement that falls foul of what the state deems to be a correct opinion, regardless of its actual truth. [81] Given the fact that ‘woke’ ideology itself derives from Marxist ideology, it shouldn’t surprise us that the more ‘woke’ our policing system, legal system, media, and entertainment industry become, the less free we will be to speak our minds, just like the Russia that Kisin grew up in as a young child. The collapse of the mainstream media’s credibility is obviously a big factor here. And I think we’re all struggling to find the answer to this. Some say we need to rekindle our trust in the mainstream media. No, they need to become trustworthy first. O’Neill: I have often found myself at loggerheads on the Ukraine question with the kind of people who would consider themselves to be on our side – people who would be critical of wokeness and the European Union and in favour of freedom of speech. But they have adopted an almost conspiratorial way of seeing the world – it’s not really critical thinking, it’s cynical thinking – and they disbelieve everything about the narrative that we are being given on Ukraine. I’m sure there are aspects of that narrative that are worth criticising and talking about, but they see the entire narrative as concocted. They dismiss the Ukraine conflict as a distraction, another way to galvanise the ‘dumb public’ now that Covid is fading away. What do you make of that kind of discussion and how do you deal with it?The catchphrase of ‘wokeism’ is ‘diversity’, but as Kisin says, “As a rule, the more outward ‘diversity’ an institution has, the more political uniformity there usually is among the people within it.” [82] Diversity really means, in true Orwellian fashion, uniformity. Much the same goes for ‘inclusivity’, which is the term most often used to justify excluding people for holding the wrong views.