Comedian praised for viral speech about 'woke culture' destroying young minds

OXFORD, United Kingdom (TND) — A speech slamming “woke culture” at the Oxford Union Society, given by Russian-British comedian Konstantin Kisin, garnered him a resounding applause, laughs and over 2 million views on Twitter as of Tuesday morning.

During his speech, the frequent satirist told members of the 200-year-old prestigious debate society that “woke culture” has “gone too far,” arguing it has destroyed young people’s motivation to improve the world through hard work and innovation.

“We on this side of the house are not on this side of the house because we do not wish to improve the world. We sit on this side of the house because we know that the way to improve the world is to work, is to create, it is to build,” Kisin pronounced. “And the problem with woke culture is that it has trained too many young minds to forget about that.”

Pointing to the dogmatic devotion to climate change from many progressives, Kisin began speaking to “those who are woke” but who “are open to rational argument.”

Kisin conceded it was a small minority, because one of the major tenets of “wokeness” is that “your feelings matter more than the truth,” but he said he believed there were people like that out there.

“What are we to do about this huge problem facing humanity? What can we in Britain do?” Kisin asked his intended audience. “We can only do one thing, you know why? This country is responsible for 2% of global carbon emissions, which means that if Britain was to sink into the sea right now it would make absolutely no difference to the issue of climate change. You know why? Because the future of the climate is going to be decided in Asia and Latin America, by poor people who couldn’t give a s*** about saving the planet.”

Kisin argued they don’t care about saving the planet “because they’re poor,” pointing to the 120 million people in China facing malnutrition from not having enough food.

“You’re not going to get these people to stay poor. You’re not even going to get them to not want to be richer,” he argued to the rational “woke” audience. “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.”

Kisin concluded to his intended audience that “wokeness” was pushing them to believe they are “victims” with “no-agency.”

“The only thing that wokeness has to offer in exchange is to brainwash bright young minds like you to believe ... that what you must do to improve the world is to complain, is to protest, is to throw soup on paintings,” Kisin insisted.

READ MORE: “Climate activists throw soup all over multimillion-dollar Van Gogh painting”

Kisin has been named Jewish Comedian of the Year, and made headlines in 2018 after he refused to sign a “behavioral agreement form” prior to a gig he was expected to perform at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London.

According to the BBC, SOAS banned jokes about religion and atheism, and insisted that all humor had to be “respectful” and presented in a “non-abusive way.”