“We must be more robust than this”

Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong,  talks sense:

In the West they’ve got a movement called wokeness where you’re supersensitive about other people’s issues and you become hypersensitive when other people somehow or other say things or mention things or refer to you without the respect which you or your subgroup feel you are entitled to.

It leads to very extreme attitudes and social norms, particularly in some academic institutions, universities.

You talk about safe spaces, you talk about appropriate pronouns. You talk about “I’m about to say something which may be offensive to you. If you don’t want to hear it perhaps you would like to leave now.

And life becomes very burdensome.

And I don’t think we want to go in that direction. It does not makes us a more resilient cohesive society with a strong sense of solidarity. We must be more robust than this.

The wokeness movement makes life “very burdensome” and does not make for a more resilient, cohesive society, says Singapore Prime Minister @leehsienloong. “I don’t think we want to go in that direction.” pic.twitter.com/KUARGkxteq

— The Nicole Pearson Show (@npearsonshow) May 12, 2024

We are going in that direction but we don’t have to keep going.

All it needs is treating people as people, accepting our common humanity rather than what makes us different;  accepting facts as facts, as distinct from opinion, and can’t be changed by attempting to change the language used when discussing them; and good manners with respect for others and their right to their views whether or not we share them.