Johnny Rotten is dead right about wokeness

Punk legend Johnny Rotten – real name: John Lydon – has blasted wokeness, saying it is ‘nonsense’ that ‘can only lead to trouble’.

In an interview in The Sunday Times Magazine, the former Sex Pistols frontman said proponents of wokeness ‘aren’t really disenfranchised at all’.

‘They just view themselves as special. It’s selfishness and in that respect it’s divisive and can only lead to trouble. I can’t believe that TV stations give some of these lunatics the space. Where is this “moral majority” nonsense coming from when they’re basically the ones doing all the wrong for being so bloody judgmental and vicious against anybody that doesn’t go with the current popular opinion?’

He also condemned tearing down statues and other woke assaults on our past.

‘I heard some nonsense about somebody not wanting [“Rule, Britannia”] played. But stop it. It’s a song. You can’t go back and rewrite history. If you start eliminating those things, well, you have no future. That’s kind of what I was warning about when I wrote [“God Save the Queen”]. I could see this shit coming.’

Lydon blames wokeness on ‘horribly, horribly tempestuous, spoiled children coming out of colleges and universities with shit for brains’.

He’s right. The proponents of identity politics say they are being inclusive. But it is inherently divisive. It is a movement mostly made up of privileged narcissists who claim the moral high ground, from where they then pitch different groups against each other and demonise anyone who steps out of line.

Who could be surprised that Lydon’s punk instincts would lead him to rebel against wokeness? Just as he revolted against the stifling and stuffy conservative establishment of the 1970s, now he is taking a welcome swipe against today’s elites who pretend to be progressive but are just as dull, conformist and puritanical. The world needs more Johnny Rottens.