Wokeism bullettin #3

by Enrico Petrucci and Emanuele Mastrangelo

Welcome back to the usual weekly appointment, in which the almanac of wokeist extravaganzas becomes a tool for understanding how these paraphernalia do not at all serve inclusion or greater 'social justice', as the proponents of these follies claim. But above all, how Italy has now been largely infected, as the trends of the brave new world increasingly make their way to these shores.

Germany - AI and the Wehrmacht DEI

Too much is wrong. And artificial intelligence has also fallen into the error of too much involvement. The case of the week is the story of how Google's image-generating service went too far in suggesting inclusivity when users of the service asked for images of historical settings.

Fine for the Viking melting pot that everyone now takes for granted thanks to TV series. In this case, the AI offers the usual four images to choose from, Norse ones that seem to have run the gauntlet of a Netflix series' colour-blind casting. But when you get to Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, you have to be careful. And the melting pot under the SS steel helmet, like a modern-day Hugo Boss fashion show, has sparked controversy.

In the end, Google's comment on X was:

Gemini's AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that's generally a good thing because people around the world use it But it's missing the mark here

The controversy was exacerbated by the project manager's lengthy collection of tweets and screenshots showing how the same AI that drew typical Hitler soldiers with a Central African phenotype refused to suggest images inspired by concepts such as the crimes of communism.

Incidentally, many analysts have attributed the fall in Alphabet's share price in the following days to this epic failure.

In the meantime, however, the entertainment industry continues its undaunted quest for an inclusive past. This time it is Mozart, played in a series by Anglo-Japanese actor Will Sharpe.

USA - Want less crime? Decriminalise, right?

In a documentary aired on MSNBC, some unfortunate phrases appeared that have been picked up in recent weeks, first by X and then by various publications such as The Daily Wire and Daily Caller. These are not phrases from an interview or a speech, but a clip of an exchange between two prominent figures in African-American activism: attorney Ben Crump and Charles Coleman, a former prosecutor and legal analyst.

Coleman explains: “'I tell people all the time, if you looking for something you gonna find it,'. "So it becomes self-fulfilling in terms of 'Well we go where the crime is,' no, you're going and you're finding crime and if you went somewhere else, guess what? You find it there too." Whereupon Crump comments "They come up with things to profile us for, "And so whatever laws were made - I believe this ... We can get rid of all the crime in America overnight, just like that, and people ask 'How, Attorney Crump?'" To conclude: "Change the definition of 'crime,'"If you get to define what conduct is gonna be made criminal, you can predict who the criminals are gonna be ... They made the laws to criminalise our culture, black culture."

Of course, these are phrases taken out of context in the wake of the critical debate on race theory, which was born precisely in the US legal sphere, in order to correct some of the distortions of the system. But allow us a certain fatalism in reporting this news and in explaining it in the Italian case, because an affair that has raised more than one eyebrow in Italy is perfectly traceable to the scheme unintentionally outlined by the illustrious lawyer and activist. That of reading the context of a crime not as a function of the state in which it is committed, but as a function of the 'culture' of the person who commits it.

The Bengali man acquitted in Brescia of abusing and raping his wife. The fact does not exist and "the inequality between man and woman is a result of his culture". Although we do not know the details of the case, this is another indirect proof that the evaluation of certain crimes does not disregard the evaluation of the sex, gender and origin of the accused. Has the CRT also reached the Belpaese? If so, it is another nail in the coffin of the rule of law.

USA / Italy - Should you wait to transition your child? An abuse

And we will take away your children. This is what comes from Illinois, which may introduce into its legislation a rule that child abuse includes depriving a child of access to gender-affirming medical services (i.e. transition).

And don't think that this is so far away for Italy: we remember that in recent weeks there was news of a judge who ruled against the father who had challenged the 'affirmation' course proposed by the Careggi hospital in Florence, which involved the use of triptorelin as a puberty blocker. A treatment that was "reversible" and "without side effects" according to gender affirmationists, but with significant side effects for everyone else (little things like sterility, underdeveloped genitals, etc.). The mother of the confused teenager in question was in favour of hormone bombing, the father was against it and demanded more medical precautions. The judges, of course, proved the straight white man wrong.

UK - Mary Poppins? Systemic racist

But the brave new world is not only marching on the complex level of politics and algorithms. More often than not, the advance of wokeism comes through the staid officials who are eager to be noticed.

This time it is another children's classic that has fallen victim to wokeism. After Roald Dahl and Dr Seuss, the creator of the Grinch, it is now Mary Poppins' turn to be classified as an 'adult film' rather than a children's film. No censorship, just introductory signs and, in the case of its return to theatres, the possible warning 'accompanied minors'.

Again (as with the dinosaurs last week and the Dahl and Seuss books) the problem is 'outdated' and 'offensive' language. One line in the film refers to 'Hottentots' (Ancient European name for a tribe from the deserts of South Africa, now better known as the Khoikhoi.), a term that would be considered 'offensive' in itself. This has even been reported in The Guardian, which quoted the Daily Mail.

USA - No stand-up comedy, we are woke.

There's also a bit of old-fashioned cancel culture. In Seattle, a club has cancelled a series of shows scheduled for the next few months by four stand-up comedians who are guests on the Saturday Late Night Show. By Jove, they are using language that is hardly inclusive and responsible!

USA - Flop at the box office? Blame the patriarchy

But wasn't the cancellation culture and the censorship that went with it just an invention of the alt-right? And hadn't the US entertainment world learned its lesson?

Apparently not, as evidenced by some of the statements made by the protagonists of Sony's superhero film Madame Web. One of the protagonists, Isabella Merced, reportedly stated that the film's poor box office performance was due to the male audiences, who still have a deep disdain for anything with strong, independent women as protagonists.

In recent years, Sony has made a number of films about lesser characters in the world of Spider-Man. From Venom, the most famous, to Morbius, who has become something of a film meme. All without Spider-Man (the rights to which remain with Marvel), and therefore certainly less appealing to the general public. And when Marvel-Disney films are struggling at the box office, it is difficult for films about even more minor characters to do well.

But again, one of the leading ladies lamented the failure, blaming the patriarchy and a macho, male-dominated public that hates strong women. Forgetting that in the 1980s, when there was no shortage of machismo, tough women were box-office hits, from the first Terminator to the Alien saga. But after the success of Barbie, hadn't cinematic patriarchy been defeated?

But for those who think in woke terms, the principle of non-contradiction does not exist. Ergo, they can profess one thing and its opposite at the same time, which is better than doublethink.

Italy - Universities in English, the Crusca Academy strikes back

The Rimini branch of the University of Bologna is to offer an English-only course, Bologna Today reports, replacing the Italian course. Faced with the suppression of an Italian language course, the Accademia della Crusca has sent an open letter.

For those who follow the phenomenon of wokeism and cancellation culture, this is a belated burst of pride. For while the Accademia della Crusca has (cautiously) kept up with the most controversial innovations of inclusive Italian, schwa in primis has nonetheless indulged in a certain inclusive spirit, as we also highlight in the volume "Wokeismo, Cancel Culture, Oicofobia" in the Machiavellica series for Historica - Giubilei Regnani. (p. 96 of the essay by Enrico Petrucci).

Inclusion has never been for the oppressed or minorities. The inclusion advocated by Wokeism is for the absence of all difference. What use are languages if a universal lingua franca is enough?

Ah, donkey kick: the first to want Italian universities in English was the austerity champion Mario Monti during the government that followed the spread coup in 2012. Connect the goddamn dots!

Italy - Mimosas, but queer and intersectional

But there is another Italian region that is moving to take over from Emilia-Romagna (which, as we wrote last week, is also going to equip itself with an algorithm for correct inclusive language) the role of locomotive of woke phenomenology, namely Veneto (once upon a time a conservative stronghold). This time it is not Governor Zaia, who is also very attentive to issues such as euthanasia and gender non-binarism. This time it is the mayor of Verona, Damiano Tommasi, ex-footballer and PD quota, who, as Libero reports, will try his hand at all the intersectional and queer paraphernalia, including a pinch of cancellation culture, for the next 'Women's Day' (a series of events that will run from March to May).

From the launch event of the infamous Queer Bible, we quote from Libero's releases and statements: 'A workshop to make boys and girls aware of the male dominance in the toponymy of the city's schools'.

And again: 'We must read male violence with a transfeminist gaze, women's rights must be women's rights, black, Asian, indigenous, non-white, for the rights of all people socialised as women or who identify with the female gender'.

Does the city of Verona therefore aspire to take away from Bologna and Milan the role of queer and intersectional capital of Italy? We hope that the Venetians will be more 'resilient' on this front. We shall see. In the meantime, it is clear that rainbow unicorns are now more prevalent than ever in the cities and countryside of the Belpaese. And unlike wild boars and stray dogs, rainbow unicorns will attack you even if you stand still. Especially if you stand still.

Enrico Petrucci

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Essayist and popularizer, among his publications Alessandro Blasetti. Il padre dimenticato del cinema italiano (Idrovolante, 2023). With Emanuele Mastrangelo Wikipedia. L’Enciclopedia libera e l’egemonia dell’informazione (Bietti, 2013) and Iconoclastia. La pazzia contagiosa della cancel culture che sta distruggendo la nostra storia (Eclettica, 2020).

Emanuele Mastrangelo