SLR Awards of 2021: Outdoing Omicron

Breaking tradition with and perpetuating the time-honoured hardy annual media concept of rating politicians, Simon Lincoln Reader takes it to the next level, cherry picking the weird and wonderful in the 2021 global headlines for his own unique brand of awards. ‘Courage in the face of Authoritarian Groupthink’, is not an awards category you would find in the mainstream media, mostly because this is where the politicians, thought leaders and influential writers shape how the masses think, creating trends that, if challenged, result in any antagonist being cancelled, on so-called moral grounds. Think Gareth Cliff’s The Burning Platform, (incidentally the winner of SLR’s New ZA Media Startup of 2021) and Cliff’s rude insistence on debate participants sticking to the topic at hand, and his subsequent burning at the stake on social media and you’ll get the idea. You may not agree with his ‘His Scandal of 2020’ winner, but if contention was a virus, SLR would outdo Omicron. Chris Bateman

By Simon Lincoln Reader*

Welcome to the 4th instalment of the Biznews.com Awards of the Year – and what a stinker it was. Started with lockdowns and got progressively worse – Nancy Pelosi abolished gender in Congress, Jacob Zuma went to jail and South Africa burned. At the time of writing we’re still unable to prevent the highly-politicized mathematicians who haven’t got the faintest idea how to cure coof from influencing policy. The social justice ponces at Merriam Webster redefined “anti-vaxxer” as “someone who opposes government mandates” irrespective of whether that someone is double or even triple jabbed. We lost Jackson Mthembu, Sonny Chiba, Stephen Sondheim, Gordon Forbes, FW de Klerk and Mr black magic himself, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Boris had another child, bringing his score up to eight or sixteen or thirty. Australia is arresting non-coof positive people and interning them in coof positive camps. The Prime Minister of New Zealand betrayed the west to form an alliance with China – but what can you expect from a horse-faced-war-mongering-Tony-Blair protege? 

Even though Kyle Rittenhouse should never have been dragged to court, the trial revealed the vast chasm between media and Hollywood elites…and reality (it also revealed that if you open fire into a riot of deranged leftist maniacs, you’re guaranteed to hit at least – at least – one pedo and one granny beater).  

Eskom employees are reportedly sabotaging the utility in pursuit of overtime. Ronald Klain, Joe Biden’s Slob of Staff and chief remote controller, wants a war with Russia. The price of basic household goods is set to spike but turn your anxiety into pride immediately, and celebrate that a male swimmer has just obliterated all female record titles at the University of Pennsylvania. If you don’t, voetsek TERF – we are coming for you. And it was a year in which, yet again, fact checkers were unceremoniously humiliated on a almost daily basis – the clearest indication of the massive re-alignment of politics: 2021’s “liberal-left” are pro-censorship, surveillance, imperialism, mandates and mainstream media.  

But without further ado…

Courage in the face of Authoritarian Groupthink

Finalists: Rand Paul (US), Nick Hudson (ZA), Joe Rogan (US), Robert F Kennedy Jnr (USA)

Winner: Nick Hudson (ZA)

Rogan and Kennedy close, but has to be Hudson – for the second consecutive year. While we hope that Ivo’s recent broadside is based on a misunderstanding, it won’t diminish PANDA’s stature: no other civilian body in the world presented resistance to the horror and cruelty of lockdowns as objectively as PANDA. That he did so knowing full well that the forum was a festering pit of vipers, special interests and corrupt hacks speaks to personal sacrifice in a way that his shapeshifting opponents could never. But it is not yet time to tell PANDA’s story – the pathetic hysteria over Moronic refers: their battle rages on. 

Inquiry of 2020 

Finalists: Facebook (UK/US), Zondo Commission of Inquiry (ZA), Rassie Erasmus Australian Inquisition (ZA) 

Winner: Rassie Erasmus Australian Inquisition 

Remarks: As soon as the nice kankles of that Facebook Karen Frances Haugen rolled into the Senate we knew this whole episode of “morality” was just a fast one between the elites – sponsored, on kankles’ side, by the world’s creepiest billionaire, Pierre Omidyar. But World Rugby [read: Australia] is starting to look a lot like FIFA, which is great, because sooner or later they’ll piss the Americans off – rob them at the 11th hour of a World Cup tournament (like what happened to South Africa’s hopes of 2006) – and that means a dawn raid plus jail. Re-assuringly it is as if these people will be unfamiliar with the concept. RASSIE ERASMUS DID NOTHING WRONG. 

 Scandal of 2020

Finalists: Travel Ban, US withdrawal of Afghanistan, Ongoing censorship 

Winner: Travel ban  

Remarks: Here’s something for all lockdown fetishishts and Fauci fanbois and with your male sanitary pads: what if I told you that a virus escapes from a lab in China sponsored by American taxpayers and gradually weakens into manageable form. But upon discovery of that manageable form, the global north (west) institutes a travel ban on some of the poorest countries in the world, many with economies dependent upon tourism. Would you call that medical apartheid? No? Would you stamp around in your crocs at UCT as you did in the 80s? Or would you just mutter, “the soy-ince….the soy-ince” and default to your shitty Guardian newspaper and your outrage on Palestine? Despite the fact that the ban has since been lifted, the ease at which it was done – and the reluctance of self-described social justice warriors to object – is profoundly chilling and telling. 

Comeback of 2021

Finalists: Donald Trump (US), Morne Steyn (ZA), Neil Ferguson (UK)

Remarks: Trump is prominent only because his successor’s woke handlers are destroying everything they touch. Ferguson has been so wrong so often – but he’s still the go-to for the UK’s nonce factory, the BBC. Steyn in the third test against the Lions was just magnificent, one high point in a year that featured few. 

New ZA Media startup of 2021

Finalists: Josh Pieters (ZA/UK), Morning Shot (ZA), Cliff Central (ZA)

Winner: Cliff Central 

Remarks: Personally, I find atrocities committed by the Janjaweed militia funnier than YouTuber Pieters (originally from Knysna) and his little friend Archie Manners, but people seem amused by their attempts to ensnare the unfashionable.  Roman Cabanac’s Morning Shot continues to grow – and is more than deserving of your support. As does Gareth Cliff. How good is he? So good that he can run with ease alongside the best of today’s style – the assertive, opinionated, entertaining garage comedian commentary – Lotus Eaters, Tim Pool, Steven Crowder, etc – which wasn’t around when he entered radio. 

Most Annoying Political Statement of 2021

Finalists: “We are only burning down this public library or this courthouse because we are seeking equality”, “Trust the science” and “#wearadamnmask” 

Winner: #wearadamnmask

Remarks: Or, tell me that you hate people without telling me that you hate people. 

 Weirdo of 2021

Finalists: Pete Buttgieg (US), Rebecca Davies (ZA), Nafeez Ahmed (UK)

Winner: Pete Buttgieg (US)

Remarks: If I were a successful gay man, I would be hopping mad that there’s an unsuccessful gay man in America – famous only for being gay – who is trying to squeeze the narrative for all gay people. Now, we certainly didn’t ask for it, but Amazon has given it to us anyway: a documentary on that failing clown, complete with lots of soft focus and some Titanic music, which is almost certainly going to be as well received as “Fauci” or “Cuties” was. Massive, defiant “L”. 

Fake News Distributor of 2021

Finalists: Joy Reid and MSNBC, News24, Jen Psaki

Winner: Jen Psaki

Remarks: Oh boy. We’re at the “Nathi-Nhleko-sweating-spinal-fluid-trying-to-explain-away-a-pool” stage of this mentalist’s career – the point at where defending the indefensible becomes the routine blaming of her sleeper’s predecessor. If you were ever in any doubt that an information war is raging – particularly on the subjects of the “expert” class, race and sexual identity – spend a few minutes watching a briefing in the James S Brady Room. 

The Adriaan Basson Award for Sententious Political Commentary 

Finalists: Max du Preez (ZA), some dude whose name I can’t remember who wrote a vomiting howler for Daily Maverick on how Quinton de Kock should be forced to kneel (ZA), Adriaan Basson (ZA)

Winner: Max du Preez (ZA)

Remarks: SO CLOSE! Lock up your daughters ladies and gentlemen – the dude whose name I can’t remember is a hockey-playing coder. But Du Preez was something else. He circulated fake news on his own Twitter account by posting a fake photo of a car underwater that featured a sticker mocking his crush Greta Thunberg. As if man in the evening of his years obsessing over a truant isn’t creepy enough, he used Vrye Weekblad – once an essential feature of South African investigative journalism – to promote the idea of 27 or 64 or 500 genders. When people went “nah” – he called them bigots. 

Ego of 2021

Finalists: Bill Gates (US), Anthony Fauci (US), Matt Hancock (UK)

Winner: Anthony Fauci (US)

Remarks: “THA SOY-INCE…THA SOY-INCE”. Like Michael Mann, the infamous climate hockey stick scam artist, Fauci the Dreadful has succeeded in deflecting criticism with that banal stratagem – because he has been exposed. As wrong, as conflicted, as dishonest. Worshipped primarily because he is the head of the upward failing snake, he almost single-handedly holds the fate of the handsomely subsidised “expert” class in his hands, many of whom will be watching 2022 nervously. 

Politician of 2021:

Finalists: Tulsi Gabbard (US),  Felix Tshisekedi (DRC) Nayab Bukele (El Salvador) Sanna Marin (Finland) 

Winner: Tulsi Gabbard (US) 

Remarks: In a year that witnessed appalling anti-Semitism, including some by young privileged plonkers attending Red Hill in Morningside, Tshisekedi visited Israel and vowed to appoint an Ambassador. Bukele made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. But Gabbard, exiled from the Democrat establishment for speaking out against the Clinton family and its influence, has come out against the prospect of an American war against Russia. She’s honest enough to admit that if that country led by woke, transitioned generals hightails it out of Kabul because of some guys with goats and fertiliser, then it stands no chance against Vladimir Putin’s forces.  

For the time being, let’s just be content with the wars we’re already fighting – about language, wokeness, cancelation, censorship – against the “expert” class, wrong about everything. But to the rest of you magnificent readers – a Merry Christmas and a very, very Happy New Year.

  • Simon Lincoln Reader works and lives in London. You can follow him on Substack.

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