Konstantin Kisin: Soviet-born British comedian, social commentator and co-host of the Triggernometry podcast. Author of 'An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West' and a prominent anti-woke cultural critic.
What this episode covers
Kisin draws on his Soviet upbringing to warn that Western civilization is undermining itself from within through 'woke' ideology, which he frames as a new race-based form of Marxism rooted in victimhood and oppression hierarchies. The conversation ranges across free speech, social media, immigration, the decline of religion, the crisis facing young men, and the war in Ukraine. He repeatedly champions pragmatism over ideology, arguing most issues have only trade-offs, not solutions. He contends that geopolitical conflict (Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel) flows from the West signaling weakness and division. He closes urging listeners to teach their children gratitude for Western values to preserve them.
Recommended on this episode
Books by Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
“there is a great writer American writer called Thomas soul ... if you read his stuff you will you will be hooked”— Konstantin Kisin
The guest's own work
An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West
Konstantin Kisin
“an immigrants love letter to the West is the title of your book it's I love this title um for a variety of reasons the word love is really intentional”— Steven Bartlett
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19
Matt Ridley and Alina Chan
“Matt Ridley ... wrote a whole book with a Chinese scientist Alina Chan ... we've had him on the show to talk about this”— Konstantin Kisin
Richard Dawkins books
Richard Dawkins
“at about 18 or 19 years old I discovered Like Richard Dawkins books and had this like existential crisis for two years”— Steven Bartlett
Big reveals from this episode
- Frames wokeness as fundamentally the promotion and celebration of victimhood, building a 'hierarchy of oppression'.
- Claims teaching people to be victims literally makes them suffer in real life via 'perception is projection'.
- Argues wokeness is a new 'race Marxism' deliberately seeded by Soviet-funded academics since the 1960s.
- Says Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov revealed the USSR spent most resources on 'demoralization', not spying.
- States COVID almost certainly came from a lab in China via gain-of-function research, once a censored claim.
- Reveals running Triggernometry changed his mind on taxes and wealth creation; more millionaires leave the UK than any other country.
- Argues Trump is more likely than Harris to end the Ukraine war via a Korean-style demilitarized zone deal.
- Names his own concept 'trade-off denialism' as the most important idea, including on climate.
Worth remembering
- The 'scar experiment': people told they had facial scars (secretly removed) reported heavy discrimination in interviews anyway.
- Kisin frames the world as six great civilizations: Western, Eastern Christian (Russia), two Islamic (Arab/Persian), China and India.
- The West operates at over 100% GDP debt, effectively borrowing from future generations.
- Britain was the first empire in history to end slavery, spending huge resources forcing other nations to abolish it too.
- Cites a rise in young Western men converting to Islam because it offers discipline, structure and lets men be strong.
- 'Political correctness' originated in the Soviet Union as a way to silence factually correct but inconvenient criticism.
- The Chelsea Russell case: a woman prosecuted for a hate crime for posting rap lyrics containing a slur after a friend's death.
- Hungary halved its abortion numbers without banning abortion by making family a financial/tax priority instead.
- Indian life expectancy rose from 32 in 1947 to 71 today, which Kisin attributes largely to fossil-fuel-driven prosperity.
- Argues 'Net Zero' often raises global CO2 by outsourcing dirtier manufacturing abroad and shipping goods back.