Oxford Union

Benjamin Butterworth

Reaction

• Was this an effective speech?
• What stylistic and substantive things did you notice?

Style

• humor: self-deprecating
• anecdote: early gay rights march
• “not too far, but so (so) far to go”

Substance

• opponents
  • long history of regressive ideas with a new label “woke”
  • critics are hyperbolic; asking for kindness & respect
• “too far”
  • like legal rights of other groups (women, black, gay)
  • and those who opposed those now regret it
• cancel culture
  • JK Rowling still has prestige, power, and money; it’s “accountability culture”
  • anti-woke brigade cancel people (like Vladimir Putin)
• it’s about power
  • and asking for accountability of those that punch down

James Lindsay

Reaction

• Was this an effective speech?
• What stylistic and substantive things did you notice?

Style

• humor
  • Hogwarts reference
  • satirical(?) self-deprecation
• autobiographical
  • book critical of CRT and “groomer” behavior
  • looks great in tuxedo
  • quod erat demonstrandum

Substance

• satire (argumentum ad absurdum)
  • references (Habermas, Freire, Marx, Halperin, Foucault)
  • woke/academic jargon (appropriation, privilege, critical consciousness, estrangment)
• analogy
  • Marx’s “socialism” to “social equity”
  • “dictatorship of proletariat” to “dictatorship of anti-racism”
• (satirical) embrace of Ibram X. Kendi
  • Federal Bureau of Anti-Racism
• cannot go too far: “must be perpetual, otherwise becomes the status quo” – Freire

Wrap up

• Did you see anything today that you’d likely do or avoid in your debate?