Riding a bike is not a political act, yet cyclists have become the bete noire for the anti-woke, anti-green, anti-liberal crowd, writes Zoe Williams
Riding a bike is not a political act, yet cyclists have become the bete noire for the anti-woke, anti-green, anti-liberal crowdetting my bike nicked was like losing a pet. I didn’t want a new one; I wanted to go back in time and not lose my old one. But, in the end, an inanimate object is not infinitely grievable and I need wheels. This is how I fetched up with, my precious first born putting the seat up for me.
Freshly re-enamoured of the world of two wheels, I have plunged straight back into the cycling discourse, the perfect microcosm of the wokeness split in all its forms. Take the ex-footballer Joey Barton, who is being sued by Jeremy Vine for calling the broadcaster a “”. Meanwhile, the socials are full of people furiously agreeing that aggressive cyclists pose more danger to them than articulated lorries.
So, the polarisation is asymmetric. While one side is building an anti-green, anti-woke, anti-liberal architecture around transport initiatives, the other side doesn’t even cohere. I mean, sure, back against a wall, I am in favour of Ulez and I don’t think you should be able to say jaw-droppingly untrue things about Jeremy Vine, but I wouldn’t go on a protest about it, let alone commit any acts of political vandalism.
Yet, this picture is turned on its head for the purposes of the “debate”, wherever it takes place, so that cyclists are the warriors, the lunatic fringe, the people who are coming for your way of life. In truth, I am medium-sure that most of us are just ambling about, wondering whether or not to invest in waterproof shoe covers.
Should we be paying more attention? Is there a lesson here about the concept of the wokerati, illustrating that it doesn’t exist, except in the imagination of the right, and that maybe the self-styled centrists of our wider culture should push back a bit harder, rather than getting popcorn and enjoying the show? I think so, yes. But what do I know? I am a bloody cyclist.
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