Two New Icons

     There aren’t many people in the entertainment world who possess visible courage. Such courage is critical in the confrontation with “woke” culture:

     Until I played that speech, I knew nothing about Konstantin Kisin. I intend to look more deeply into him. I doubt he’ll go forward from here without being savagely attacked by the gauleiters of popular culture.

     So far, the backlash has been feeble:

     Prior to the debate, campus reporting revealed that Oxford Union president Ahmad Nawaz had faced stiff internal opposition for hosting the discussion.
     One member, Kajaanan Vijitharan, told the university paper that the main reason for her departure “was that I could not justify serving under a President whom I believed to be morally reprehensible. One example that comes to mind is, when the motion ‘This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far’ was proposed, multiple members of committee … raised to the President’s attention that the motion pandered to a right-wing ideology.”

     Here’s a ludicrous attempt to put words in Kisin’s mouth:

     When Brandi Kruse recently tweeted that the Russian-British “comedian” Konstantin Kisin was the real deal, I actually took her seriously. His “destruction of the woke worldview” at the Oxford Union Society might contain something I missed. The attack on wokeness has, as far as I can tell, been nothing more than an attempt to repackage the old and only substance of conservative politics: The rich cannot be wrong.

     That’s what qualifies as a “defense” of “woke” today. The Left is merely “unbooked;” it’s downright imbecilic. Perhaps there are grounds for hope after all.

     But I said we have two new icons, didn’t I? Here’s another of whom I’m freshly aware:

     The Chosen actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus Christ, appeared at the annual March for Life in Washington D.C., and noted that the landscape in the entertainment industry especially in film, television, and music “has become increasingly sinister.”
     About halfway through his speech, Roumie stated, “For some time now, we have been witnesses to a mounting polarity between light and dark. We’ve seen it manifest itself in many facets of culture.”
     He continued, “But I would like to address as I see it as an artist in the entertainment industry. In the last several years there’s been a sharp and disturbing increase in the darkness of the imagery being used in film, television, and music. The landscape has become increasingly sinister.”
     “And in some cases, even demonic in tone,” he added. “More so than in previous years. Sometimes subliminal. Oftentimes overt. Storylines involving the occult, witchcraft, demons, and even Satanic elements are commonplace in mainstream programming. Many feature spiritually and psychologically disturbing content.”

     And at the March for Life, at that. Here’s his whole speech, if you’d like to hear it in its entirety:

     Overt loyalty to traditional Christian faith and traditional notions of good and evil didn’t hurt Jim Caviezel’s career. Let’s hope – and pray, if you’re of a mind – that Jonathan Roumie prospers similarly.