People are intrinsically good and want to please each other. We may have our quirks and foibles, but to be part of a successful society we need to get along, and the majority of us do.

I am a great believer in thinking outside the box, so I am a huge fan of people who innovate and create new paradigms in technology, science, philanthropy, and other ways of thinking that improve everyday life.

So I’ve been musing for a while now, how did we find ourselves in this perverse ‘woke’ culture where we are afraid of even thinking a politically incorrect thought? How does this happen to a whole society?

Most people believe in the premise of ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’. Common sense tells us that this especially applies to those that may be a little different. Different culturally, in appearance, or behaviour – all of these things require a degree of tolerance. It used to be called ‘respect’. It was given regardless of racial origin, sexual preference, gender, or medical situation. No one would force you to be best friends with strangers, but there was an understanding to be kind, courteous, and respectful when you happened to cross paths.

How on earth did we get to a place where we are legally forced to identify certain citizens and then subject them to regulations that diminish both their human rights and our common sense? How did Critical Race Theory worm its way into corporate, government, and even military training mandates?

I believe everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. I am advocating for no discrimination at all. But we need to understand how this transformation happened to our civilisation.

Australia has become a ridiculous place where some people have more rights than others. The colour of our skin determines both social privilege and whether we are allowed to feel shame or pride toward our heritage. It can even be used to deny access to a career in order to ‘positively discriminate’ in favour of others. How did it become politically incorrect to talk about these things with close friends?

Just as there are out of the box thinkers who advance society, there are those who do the opposite. They inhibit innovation and regress progress. The ‘People of Discontent’. Making the world a better place is just too much work… For them, it is easier to cover up their inadequacies and incompetencies by making others look bad – to discriminate and divide – blame and enrage – rather than build bridges. You cannot change the past, but you don’t need to destroy it either. There is so much opportunity in the ‘now’ and even more in the future.

The LGBT community, in all its current forms, has the right to expect to be treated like everyone else – with dignity and respect. All decent people would agree, but these People of Discontent needed more. And so we find ourselves living in a world where kindergarten children are being taught – not only about a myriad of genders – but finishing school unable to understand the basics of male and female. Surely kids need to understand the concept of gender before exploring the next few thousand variations?

The majority of us sincerely agree there should be no discrimination based on sexual preference, so why does society sanction ‘diverse’ workplaces based on sexuality rather than competence? Public corporations have adopted this lunacy, mandating workshops and training sessions to explore identities that should remain a private matter. No one puts a stop to this because everyone is afraid of being perceived as politically incorrect.

Riots, looting, and the burning of cities were excused because Black Lives Matter are an identity-based political movement. I don’t remember having different laws and courts for African Americans. There have been black lawyers, judges, and even a president for two terms. Yes, decent people acknowledge there were black neighbourhoods where it was tough to stay a law-abiding citizen, but circumstance does not define a generation. During the Black Lives Matter riots, black policemen in black neighbourhoods became the enemy – is the irony of that not farcical?

Those People of Discontent began by making us feel good about acknowledging obvious discrimination and saying ‘no’. Then they saddled us with ‘collective guilt’, and finally, they started going too far. They made us scared to disagree. We were intimidated into more and more extreme segregation and badgered into supporting causes that sounded good in principle but raged into the burning of cities, looting of businesses (ironically owned by hard-working black people), and total destruction of lives and livelihoods of those least able to afford it.

Those People of Discontent used our good intentions and good nature to pull us into a cesspool of wokeness that is now seeing history rewritten and its statues destroyed. Future generations will not be able to make their own judgements about history because of what good people have allowed in the name of being politically correct.

I would like to suggest we all congregate and be proud to be citizens of whichever country we have chosen to call home. Unite as Australians who do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, people who are respectful and kind to all and celebrate personal origins. We should go forward as true Aussies who can joke around with no one taking offence and everyone being embraced.

Lily Steiner is an active member of the community, radio host on www.J-Air.com.au and lifelong advocate for Israel. She is an entrepreneur and Founder of American Business Gateway.