Totalitarianism's back in business Credit: Georges DeKeerle/Sygma via Getty Images
In late 2018, a woman called Kristie Higgs was sacked from her job at a school in Gloucestershire because of comments made on her private Facebook page, in her own time, concerning sex education in schools. Last month, an Employment Tribunal upheld her dismissal, on the grounds that her employer believed that her posts “might reasonably lead people…to conclude that she was homophobic and transphobic”. The Tribunal flatly denied any link between her Christian convictions and the school’s decision to sack her, a remarkable piece of sophistry clearly intended to avoid the finding that Ms Higgs had been dismissed because of her religious beliefs — which she quite plainly had been.
Days later, it was reported that the Metropolitan Police were investigating Darren Grimes, the Conservative activist, because of a racially insensitive remark made by Professor David Starkey during an interview on Mr Grimes’ YouTube channel at the end of June.
In the United States, meanwhile, the company Yelp, whose website features crowd-sourced reviews of millions of businesses, announced that they were introducing a new feature on their website: a “Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert,” which will be accompanied by “a link to a news article where they can learn more about the incident.”
All of these stories broke while I was reading Rod Dreher’s new book, Live Not By Lies: A Manual For Christian Dissidents. These were immediately followed by two further developments from the other side of the Atlantic. First, Webster’s online dictionary responded to a manufactured row over Amy Coney Barrett’s use of the phrase “sexual preference” by changing the entry for the word “preference” to state that it was an “offensive” term when used in connection with sexual orientation.
On the very same day it became clear that Twitter was refusing to publish any Tweet linking to a story in the New York Post concerning corruption allegations against Hunter Biden, son of the US Presidential candidate Joe Biden.
All of these occurrences illustrate Dreher’s central thesis: that inhabitants of Western countries are seeing the development of a new soft totalitarianism. Under this dispensation, interpersonal freedoms — those related to sexual expression and sexual self-definition, to the actualisation of a Self created by an individual for themselves — are sacrosanct, whereas old-fashioned concrete liberties of speech and thought and assembly and debate, are up for grabs. This is Philip Rieff’s “triumph of the therapeutic”, where the state will protect us from disapproval, challenge and criticism — even if that requires the destruction of proper freedoms.
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SubscribeA very good article that synthesises and expresses so many of the developments and themes that have come to the fore in recent years. The latest example in the UK is the absurdity of the FA resigning because he said ‘coloured footballers’ instead of ‘footballers of colour’, or whatever the latest prescribed terminology might be. And this within the context of highlighting some of the problems that footballers of colour face.
This writer and many others refer to a ‘soft totalitarianism’, but one wonders how long it will be before that totalitarianism becomes much harder.
I sat in ‘awe’ listening to a replay of that interview on Radio 4 the other morning, as it was replayed at length by the BBC, as if it were about to provide irrefutable ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’ proof of this man’s complete unsuitability for his job only to be left thinking, ‘Jesus, is this seriously what we’re coming to’.
A damning indictment this most certainly wasn’t of the man in question.
A man who arguably failed to use the precise and yet simultaneously ever-shifting lexicon demanded by ‘a system’ that seems intent on catching seemingly otherwise well-qualified for the job individuals out for simply failing to constantly move with it as if their livelihoods depended on it (which they clearly now do) and as if they’ve got nothing else better to do (which of course they should have).
His abiding sin was he was an older white man.
A young black woman saying those things in public at an event to promote diversity from a position of power and authority would have faced the same criticism.
If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.
And, generally, they will believe anything that reinforces the narrative
Just one example, please!
Meanwhile ‘Times Radio’ has taken up the cudgels on behalf of Radio 4 by promoting Michelle Obama’s biography during their commercial breaks in tones so saccharine that you feel sick just listening. This seems to be the preferred lifeboat of choice for broadcasters abandoning BBC Titanic…
Yes indeed. At one time it was offensive to say black. Then that was changed to people of colour. It would be nice to have a world where everyone is just a person without any racial description attached.
This has caught me out… I thought it was more polite to say ‘coloured person’ rather than ‘black person’. I must have missed the memo when they changed that. Also, when did ‘queer’ become an acceptable word to refer to homosexuality?
To homosexuals always. To heterosexuals, not so far, at least that I can see. This is the basic problem in a nutshell. We no longer have words that independently acquire and lose meaning in context, but words wielded as weapons, whose ‘meaning’ depends on who is using them.
Is sausage jockey ok?
Or ‘gay’ come to that – which could be interpreted as a trite insult…the world really is disappearing down its own rabbit hole! Or is ‘rabbit hole’ offensive now..?
Rabbit Warren…..Please sir!
Until Warren takes offence.
Then that was changed to people of colour.
Which prompted a black co-worker to wonder how long before “colored people” is back in style. And the ghost of MLK agrees with your last statement. Today, the left would consider him a sellout.
Like Justice Clarence Thomas recently called Uncle Tom on CNN – anchor still has her job, praised for her honesty as a matter of fact.
I get so tired of these people who have chips on their shoulders regarding the colour of their skin.
I read somewhere that coloured was out, and black was in, so far as offensiveness ratings.
I actually think there are two sides to this.
One side it that it’s the thought that counts, not the word. A generous heart behind any comment or wording should be fine. Judge the heart, not the choice of word. Or don’t judge at all of course.
The other is, while trying to have a generous heart, the choice of word may be more relevant to the speaker, than to the listener. Maybe it upsets a speaker to say some word the listener prefers to hear, more than the reverse, of upsetting the listener by the choice of word.
I think I kind of like that logic. 🙂
It won’t I think in the main be prison that they will use, it will be the mental health system at least initially. compulsory bias training, toxic masculinity = mental illness, hate crimes. More and More of the same.
We have to start asking what is the agenda here and I think its something like this:-
China and India and the Islamic world are responsible for large proportions of the worlds population. The globalists want control of and money from and power in these parts of the world but also the west. Therefore they are pushing us closer to communist China and Socialist Caste system (Identity politics anyone) India because they see these as the future world leading states and because they like control. The excuses for control are already all there – dubious claims of climate change, pandemics etc. People buy in because this is a long term goal supported by the establishment throughout the world, Eventually democracy will go but right now it will be undermined by stealth as much as possible.
Are these people evil? I wonder, they probably justify themselves by believing they are preventing nucclear war and that they are naturally smarter so should be in charge but basically yes all tyrants justify themselves.
Can we resist? We have to all understand the extent and we would have to create our own international resistance and we would have to convince people to side with us and we would have to ideally do it in a cost free way. So basically very very difficult. At the very least we can’t keep voting for the same old corrupted parties. We will need to choose the likes of Farage’s reform party but that will need to happen across the west.
I am not very optimistic. We are not suddenly going to get our half decent Liberal democracies back, it will be more like a cross between Brave New World and Big Brother but for the entire world, meaning no external threat. That is the dystopia that looks most likely to me.
I read an article from a well known GP, and online blogger that went something like this:
“If our governments can’t collectively organise an effective response to Coronavirus, how could we possibly imagine they could organise a global conspiracy”.
Well the World Economic Forum and even the UN are organised world “governments”. It looks likely to me the chaos was a feature from their point of view. They will say something like look at this shitshow if only we had more power concentrated in world government we would have done so much better. Cue less democracy more technocracy.
‘Cue less democracy more technocracy.’ The latter already firmly established. I am more an more amazed at the numbers (of my own generation) ‘wedded’ to the gadgets. Even throughout meals!!
not technology, technocracy, unelected burueacrats with the real power.
It looks to me like the opposite conclusion would be the logical one — that highly centralized, highly authoritarian power tends to create chaos. That conclusion would please not only right-wing libertarians, but autonomist lefties. It would be attributed to the inability of a single authority or power to integrate billions of divergent and competing interests. That which can’t be integrated or left alone — and the totalitarian mindset can’t leave anything alone — becomes the chaos.
I hope you are right but that is not the nature of our world I fear.
Depends on what they are trying to achieve. If chaos, confusion, public acquiescence etc then they will have organised brilliantly.
I think that is exactly what they want as an excuse to centralise.
The other day I saw a video clip showing a protest (ahem!) somewhere in America. The marchers were outside a typical American style house and on the veranda there was an older white couple. They were pointing at a lawn sign in their yard and saying “there’s our Biden sign please don’t destroy anything” The voices from the crowd – white and black – included “no one cares what your white ass thinks” and then a black woman stepped up and screamed “telling Black people how to protest is white supremacy”.
So, the left, like the lions taking over a new pride kill the cubs so that no other will interfere with their dominance. You’d have to be quite the optimist if you think a Biden administration will do anything against such insane behavior and it is just as easy to find similar here in the UK. Sasha Johnson of Oxford BLM would be a good place to start.
What would the other footballers be called — “footballers of pallor”?
Or would they be “uncolored footballers”?
Viewed from the outside, people must be baffled at the insanity of those in charge of us. Do you suppose they’re agonising over gender dysphoria or white privilege in Stockton on Tees or Stoke on Trent? Truly a discussion for that tiny, self-obsessed minority on in the inside.
The truly shocking thing is how much influence these idiots seem to wield: part of the Unelected State which is doing so much damage to our country and which desperately needs to be exposed to public scrutiny to bring an end to this madness.
Welcome to Scotland 😀
I left the place 30 years ago for Sunny Kent, largely because of the appalling sectarianism. The SNP have done nothing about that, despite their promises, instead they just pile on more divisive crap.
They have bought up the media. That is the trouble. They make a lot of noise with their idiot ideas then they get a terrible shock when something goes to the voting public, e.g. Brexit, Boris Johnson’s party getting a huge majority, etc. They will try to get things through without votes or referendums, now, but we must stop this and keep awake (not woke – silly word.)
Yes, they gained control of media and education system – and now they can control the narrative and push their agendas fully to achieve the results they crave and feel so entitled to.
As they have just done on the biggest stage yet, with the US Presidential elections this year.
thank you for your candor and confirming your identity.
Humza Yousaf would consider your comment sufficient to have you dragged off to the Gulag, along with Erik.
I doubt very much that anyone in Scotland would allow the to happen.
On the education of which the Left has gained control: would a voucher system help cure that?
Sorry, not sure what you mean, what voucher scheme?
ah yes…they…the media is owned by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and other corporate oligarchs.
speaking of silly words”Brexit…did you all ever see that £350 million a week for the NHS?
I think it’s been more like 350bn
“….Solzhenitsyn…… had come to realise that one of the most powerful supports for ….dictatorship came from the willingness of people to passively co-operate with the official lies…”
Such as “trans women are women” ” pregnant men” etc.
“The simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions! His rule: Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme”only not through me. But it is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat the lie! For in the struggle with lies art has always triumphed and shall always triumph! Visibly, irrefutably for all! Lies can prevail against much in this world, but never against art”¦
One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”
““From the speech delivered by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to the Swedish Academy on the occasion of his acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Inspiring words… But in the modern world artists and writers, with a few notable and minor exceptions, seem to be doing the most to spread the lies and repression of the state and corporations.
Hang on Mike, I’m an artist and I never said a word. Honest. I have enough problems (like many people) just getting proportions, perspective, tonal values and colour sorted and that looking at a blank canvas:-)
He forgot the scientist’s.
But it’s like anything else really, for every activist artist, there’s a thousand cringing in the background.
Hope you’re right!
That sounds like an idealised and dated picture of the artist as unflinching hero standing bravely alone against an oppressive system. The image doesn’t really hold up when you consider the consensus that has become the norm for our creative class. The higher levels of creativity confer a jealously guarded status and approval of one’s peers is vital if reputation and status are to be maintained.
We are constantly subjected to patronising moral lessons by Left-liberal creatives who probably see themselves, not as “new totalitarians”, but rebels doing their bit to counter a corrupt old system that is supported by an ignorant populace who need to be “woke up”.
How do you rebel against those who consider themselves rebels? In their eyes you will inevitably appear to be a defensive reactionary trying to turn back the tide of history.
The problem there begins when ‘artists’ don’t work out of a normal desire for money or patronage, but ‘conviction’. And ‘conviction’ is always dangerous.
Yes, I think it was Tom Stoppard who neatly flipped the old adage about “having the courage of ones convictions” when he talked about the courage NOT to have convictions ““ a courage seriously lacking among virtue signallers so eager to impress.
I don’t have any convictions. My criminal record is pristine……….
Oh, that British sense of humor ““ the envy of the world we are told. Could you not scrape up just a bit of it? Was it worth the effort of reaching for the keyboard to tap out such a lame unfunny quip?
“And ‘conviction’ is always dangerous.”
Like Solzhenitsyn’s?
Yes, I don’t think that Solzhenitsyn had in mind the sanctimonious bunch of hypocritical group thinking fools that call themselves artists these days. The writers, the comedians used to be the ones willing to speak the unspeakable. Now they’re the ones trying to shut everyone up.
Lionel Shriver says “writers used to be ‘cutting edge’, now they’re ‘cookie-cutter.'”
The 80’s alt-comedy circuit has a lot to answer for. And I bet the late Bernard Manning could give them the answers!
Would that be the same Lionel Shriver who wrote the apologia in the Spectator and voted for Biden? Her belief in free speech seems to come second to snobbery when faced with someone she considers vulgar.
I dunno, but announcing the intention of voting for Biden doesn’t undermine free speech, at least not in my books.
I prefer comedians who just entertain and amuse.
Problems started when comedians were told by highbrow types that it was their purpose to challenge and subvert ““ in fact comedy which wasn’t challenging audience complacency could hardly be called comedy at all ““ send off the clowns and bring on the activist comics!
This is a piece I’ve been wanting to read for a while. Having recently read Anne Applebaum’s “Iron Curtain” – a history of how the Communists gained power in post-war Eastern Europe – I’ve noticed striking similarities with how people have ceded control to the authorities this year. Sadly, the whole thing seems to have been on fast forward due to the cross-party, big tech backed, COVID-19 propaganda.
I read that book a couple of years ago, and it is excellent. The destruction of civil society that it documents is quite chilling in the current context. I must dig it out and read it again. I can also recommend The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz.
“…..this year”??????
The Communists gained power in Eastern Europe mostly because the Nazis wiped out the local civil societies and the Soviet Army moved into the vacuum they left behind when they were defeated. The Soviet Army took its orders from the leadership in Moscow, who were interested in surrounding their state with obedient satellites as a matter of self-defense. The people of these countries did not cede control; they were at the point of a gun, first a German one, then a Soviet one. Eventually the Soviets went home, and now everything is wonderful.
The measures taken against COVID-19 don’t seem totalitarian to me. All of them are rational, if not always correct, responses to an actual public danger, one not very well understood at the time.
Only rational if you only listen to 1 sort of scientist, refuse to pay attention to other scientists’ theories and refuse to learn when your predictions are shown wrong time and time again.
While COVID has an illusory nature to it, being positive but asymptomatic, there is more than enough data now to draw workable conclusions. Starting with the obvious as far as which underlying health conditions, and age group, are most vulnerable. Totalitarian? When the Blue State Governor’s in US dictate that no more than 5 family members can gather indoors over the holidays, masks on, and can only lower masks “between bites,” when dining, and may not “sing or chant” to reduce transmission…we have a control problem ie: Totalitarianism. We laughed here in the Southeast…can’t enforce this nonsense. But I hear AU Gov uses drones to identify ppl on the beach breaking guidelines, for punishment, no doubt. Scientists? I can point you to 1000’s from Oxford, and Harvard, from Israel to France that disagree with lockdowns, but they’ve all been discredited by mainstream media…go figure 🙄
Starry thank you for that calm, reasonable input. Most of the puerile / shrill / ranting comments here simply dont understand the distinction between sometimes blundering authoritarianism and totalitarianism. To suggest that the efforts of world governments to address a global pandemic are leading us to hell in a Panzer is like reading the letters page of Viz. Oh, and thank you for not mentioning a book, any book, that you read sometime ago.
I’m struck at how casually so many in the States dismiss what is happening before their very eyes. Maybe it’s easy to do that when the target of the latest witch hunt is someone the observer disagrees with. But eventually the mob comes for you, too, because that’s what mobs do. Not long ago, the entertainer Ellen DeGeneres took a lot of heat for daring have a civil conversation with George Bush in skybox during a football game in Dallas. What was she supposed to do, physically attack him? Go on a verbal tirade?
Equally, we must ask ourselves whether we can live with the alternative, of compliance and endless white lies and ultimately the surrender of all public space to fanatics and those willing to bend to them.
I suggest you ask this first, without the ‘equally’ or any other equivocation because this is where tactics like this lead. When you give the mob an inch, it will always push for more. There is no bargaining or reasoning to be done; this is a group that will go after its own for daring to stray from dogma.
My thoughts too. The privileged mob who portray themselves as “liberals” has been brainwashing the masses so successfully that the noisy majority are incapable or totally unwilling to see what has been unfolding in front of them with the US elections.
No, not all the “masses”. Far too many, though.
“Not long ago, the entertainer Ellen DeGeneres took a lot of heat for
daring have a civil conversation with George Bush in skybox during a
football game in Dallas. What was she supposed to do, physically attack
him? Go on a verbal tirade?”
So no one should have a bad opinion of Ellen DeGeneres’s choice of company? Many people consider George W. Bush to have been a war criminal, with good reason, I think, although perhaps he could get off by pleading ignorance and stupidity. DeGeneres could have taken a walk. There are limits to sociability.
And in a couple of paragraphs you prove the writer’s point. Because in your opinion something is so, anyone who thinks differently is fair game for a public hounding. Re education camps coming soon?
only someone living in cloud-cuckoo land with no sense of practicality whatsoever could advocate that a leading media personality ought to have snubbed the president of the United States.
The left in close cahoots with powerful business interests, together reshaping society. It’s actually not that new. There was an experiment along those lines in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. It didn’t work out then, but I’m sure they’ve ironed out the glitches this time. It’ll probably be fine.
Instead of National Socialism they are pursuing a Globalist Socialism this time. Wth China’s direct and indirect support with finance and technology appreciating their work from behind the scenes.
A dystopian world is creeping up on us, not just through the woke world, education and Stasi like oversight of language and beliefs that do not fit the narrative of political correctness. In addition through the proselytising of the World Economic Forum headed up by Klaus Schwab and their “Great Reset” concept using Corvid-19 to initiate a new form of communism controlled by the mega rich of the industrial world which entails a transformation of society resulting in permanent restrictions on fundamental liberties and mass surveillance on populations, in return for owning nothing which they plan to have in place by 2030.
Oh FFS….see my comment above about conspiracies.
sounding a lot like this monty python sketch from way back:
” I can’t even take a bath without 6 or 7 communists jumping in with me. They’re in my shirt cupboard and Brezhnev and Kosygin are in the kitchen now eating my wife’s jam. Oh, they are cutting off my legs! I can see them peeping out of my wife’s blouse! Why doesn’t Mr. Maudling do something about it before it is too late?”
Hey, not to worry. If Biden in fact wins, China will be our masters in short order. And I don’t think they’ll put up with any of this nonsense. Or maybe they’ll just leave us with our Cathedral as a cancer on the West to keep us under control, from re-emerging as an economic threat, wasting our money on Green New Deals forever and making sure those in power are with the (China) program whether they know it as such or not.
Haven’t China committed to more far reaching green measures than the USA.
Mr Biden would, at least initially, only be catching up China wrt Green New Deal.
https://www.bloomberg.com/n…
We don’t need China.
We are f*****g our country up all by ourselves thanks very much.
Another good article on this subject to go with Douglas Murray’s articles and books. The solution is quite simple but also quite dangerous for the individual/Political Party. It is for that individual and Party to say that ‘Enough is enough, we have had it with minority groups attempting to dictate to the majority. Democracy means doing what the majority want and within democracy Freedom of Speech is the most important element. We probably I/We have all the prescribed prejudices of racism, sexism etc in differing percentages(like everyone else in society) but that is life! I/we are about Free Speech and with that in mind we will campaign on that and that alone and we will sweep away this ‘Cancel Culture’ or whatever you might want to call it.
Errrr……That would be Farage, but dare not his name pass the lips of those scared to seek him out and actually listen to him.
We all asked for Trump, and we got him. A plain speaking politician who couldn’t be corrupted by money; who didn’t want to be the worlds Policeman; who was human with all the character faults of the rest of us; who did what he promised to do (check his 2016 manifesto) or at least tried to; who took on China head on; who didn’t have a family riddled with deadbeats (Biden, Clinton, Bush) or as sweet as saccharine (Obama) and what did most of you do?
You trashed him.
May Allah bless you all, because you’ll need it.
In the US, which as you may have heard is a multiethnic country, the Ruling Classes would find Balkanization and civil war inconvenient. One the other hand, they do find a certain amount of IdPol convenient — divide and rule. So it’s a delicate balance. And the elites seem to be deteriorating, so they are doing the balance less well as they go along.
Democracy and freedom of speech are antagonistic concepts.
RE: Democracy and freedom of speech are antagonistic concepts.
More utter nonsense.
We live in the most pampered, ridiculous society in human history. Where the poor is fat. If you cannot be bothered to stand in your own name to fight this because you might not get a promotion just think of this. Men died of trench foot, for your freedom to choose not to stand in your central heated home. All the men who died (average 19) in bomber command shouldnt have bothered.
I always like to consider what one of the US founding figures said. Ben Franklin said,
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Of course the quote is out of context as the issue he was addressing was more mundane having to do with whether the Penn family should have the right to pay money to the Pennsylvania State Assembly to ensure that they would not fall under taxation. But I think it’s very apt to the current situation as well.
Today if you want promotion in the British army or the Nhs you have to undergo re education of a failed evil ideology. All they have done is swap race for class which by the way was the only thing that separated communists from the the National socialists.
“…swap race for class which by the way was the only thing that separated communists from the the National socialists.”
nonsense.
you should rename yourself All Mybizness, as evidenced by all the threads you chime in on
being a polymath isn’t a bed of roses.
European Civilisation: 2500yrs of scholarship, discovery, creativity and innovation – study, discuss, enjoy
Marxism: shut up, shut up, your ideas have been driving me crazee for nearly 200yrs
European Civilisation: nope. you were already crazy, telling everyone else to shut up came after
your fixation on Marx is noted as is your absolute ignorance on…well everything.
“Where the poor is fat.” And semi-literacy abounds.
I like it. It sounds sort of Middle-Englishy.
Where semi-literacy abounds, is celebrated and idolized…not in a bad way.
If we don’t stand up against this now, it’s going to get much worse!! Talk is cheap.
“Talk is cheap”, some talk may be, some however may cost you dearly, not just you job and home, but quite literally your life.
When are you organising the central London demonstrations. I’m up for coming along.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C. S. Lewis
It’s already noticeable that neighbours and friends are willing to inform on each other for minor infractions of the so called rules during this pandemic.
I trust the HM Constabulary are keeping a record of these wretched informers?
They will probably put them on the payroll.
Wokeness never Sleeps. So the only choice is to build a life that is explicitly anti-woke and to the best of your ability surround yourself with likeminded souls.
No, we have a duty to remedy this madness ..free speech & association, & freedom to travel are utterly essential, or one is a “slave” ..Billions depend on this & us! Expose the lies & propaganda by word of mouth..it’s v powerful…if you are ostracised by “friends” for this …well good! …They are likely closed minded idiots anyways! …tell everyone you see..everywhere you go…,,,& sooner or later people will see murderous, thieving & manipulative propaganda for what it is…in the face of this rapidly creeping Tyranny we better get on with it too,,,only we the people can protect the people.
I don’t have many friends left these days. The Woke have gone a’Woking and I don’t really give a monkeys.
What would the components of an anti-Woke life be? Would I have to discriminate against the ‘colored’? When I was a child, that was absolutely required. That was definitely an anti-Woke world.
No you wouldn’t have to “discriminate against the ‘coloured'”. You would have to keep an open mind and retain a sense of humour in an anti-woke world.
This is very good. The question I have is: is this just an interesting observation, or is it a present danger? I think it is the latter. I am fairly sure that I would lose my job if I expressed perfectly normal opinions that run counter to twitter fashion. The question then is: what do we do about it? The guardians control the media and the institutions. Our only hope is laws to prevent it. But the lawmakers themselves are cowed by the media and the institutions.
It’s a rather naive idea that “the normal business of politics: the consideration of empirical findings about what the world is really like”.
Normally, politics are at best vaguely related to empirical findings, the best source of which is what we call science…
Good point. Only very rarely does politics have anything to do with empiricism. Instead, its chief pre-occupation is cynicism. Specifically, the cynicism of gaining short-term advantage by giving people free stuff or telling them what they want to hear.
Indeed, it can be disheartening.
Nothing wrong with political cynicism, in fact we could do with more.
And nothing wrong with short term gain; tell a man he’ll get £100 next week and he’ll have more faith in that than telling him he’ll get £1M in ten years.
The ideological concept that politicians should be planning for the ‘long term’ is simply stuffing the world with more politicians and bureaucrats figuring out how they can sell the daft idea to the even dafter public that believe them.
On the contrary, ’empiricism’ is irrelevant to science, which is the process of abstraction, and statistical enumeration. That ‘E=mc2′ cannot be ’empirically’ demonstrated. Nor can ‘gravity’. Gravity is an inference.
empirically
adverb
by means of observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.
I do hope you’re joking
Thank you. A more concise, and less cruel answer than I would have given.
That’s why those things are called theories, the theory of relativity for example or the global warming theory. Once they are proved they are elevated to laws – the first law of thermodynamics for example.
Every scientific conclusion is a theory, be it “abstraction, and statistical enumeration” or otherwise.
There was a time when, by empirical (observational) means, powered flight wasn’t possible.
That theory lasted an awful long time.
The single most unsuccessful community in society are scientists.
By their very nature, they must fail more than they succeed, else there would be no need for experiments or Peer Review, neither of which work very well – experiments because they (should) fail most of the time, and Peer Review because it has a habit of accepting failed experiments.
Never trust a scientist until he puts his hand in a cold fire first.
‘There is no Mein Kampf or Little Red Book for this movement,…’
There are any number of Harry Potter books for this movement. Not to mention the Koran.
Yet, the author of the Harry Potter books was herself ostracised for breaking required standards of inclusiveness.
Like many (most ?) things, it maybe isn’t so simple as to be reducible to an easy black and white.
As the article quoted of Solzhenitsyn “challenge them to live in truth in a small-scale way”.
The Harry Potter books are by all accounts a good read, harmless fun.
Demonising them seems against the gist of the article, that accepting wide norms is what is needed, not a totalitarian limit, which can easily create a clash of my totalitarian ideas vs your totalitarian ideas.
So Harry Potter, a great read, though some of the characterisation isn’t my cup of tea seems more the Solzhenitsyn “small-scale” truth.
Brilliant, thank you. My thoughts elsewhere on this thread.
COVID-19: The Great Reset https://www.amazon.com/dp/2…
Sure there is! And a German wrote it!
That’s a very fine article, thank you Niall.
Pathologist: ‘Mass testing in Liverpool shows testing we have had has failed.’
YOU TUBE watch?v=yPG8d3e43Xk
A consultant pathologist has told talkRADIO the mass testing of Liverpool has proven the original coronavirus tests “failed.”
Speaking to Julia Hartley-Brewer, Dr Clare Craig said she was initially against the idea of mass testing, but “what’s happened in Liverpool has completely turned the tables.”
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has said more than 44,000 people have taken part in the city’s mass coronavirus testing pilot, which began on Friday. Dr Craig says only 0.5% of those testing were found to be positive.
“What that means is we have a really good test at showing who has definite Covid. It has shown up the testing that we’ve had to have failed.
“Mass testing the whole of Liverpool is not the key.
“We need to be re-testing people who have been misdiagnosed and get the diagnosis right.”
Yes, a very good article.
There seems to be a constant flow of cases in which Christians are discriminated against because of their faith, particularly in the area of employment. Some take their case to the highest courts but are ruled against more often than not. It is incredible to me that our legislators cannot frame laws which give some freedom of conscience and beliefs to people of all faiths. So much for our liberal, tolerant society.
Not all, but many Christians see themselves as living in a counter-culture and there are some strategies we can use as well as trying to live an authentic Christian life. No doubt Rob Dreher’s new book will help and encourage us.
The most important strategy is prayer. We believe we are engaged in a spiritual battle for the soul of our nation, and prayer is a very powerful weapon. Increasing numbers of Christians are praying for a great spiritual awakening across our land. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
We can also support those Christian organisations which are devoted to bringing Christian and biblical principles to the public square.
“There is no party whose programme explicitly outlines their support for it “. I wish this was true. Unfortunately it is the Davos and Bilderberg crowd. This is their technocracy dream. It is them. This is why they launched the covid plandemic. “Build back better” is their motto. https://www.weforum.org/age…
conspiracy theory alert.
It isn’t a conspiracy when they publicly tell you what they are going to do.
COVID-19: The Great Reset https://www.amazon.com/dp/2…
Of course I am strongly opposed to censorship and would want to uphold freedom of speech, but before decrying out descent into chaos and totalitarianism it might be useful to examine the facts more closely. I have looked at the case of Kristie Higgs cited here and this article is not telling us the truth. First of all the article does not tell us in which capacity Kristie Higgs was employed by the school which may lead many readers to believe that she was a teacher and that this case relates to academic freedom of speech. In fact Mrs. Higgs was a pastoral assistant and therefore would be directly involved with the pastoral care of LGTB pupils. Although she posted on her private Facebook page it was established that her comments and the postings she made would be visible to a hundred or more members of the school. She was attacking the sex education provided by her own employer in a manner that was deemed offensive by some who saw it. None of this is explained in this article. The Employment Tribunal determination is in the public domain. The allegation that she was sacked for her social or religious beliefs was rejected by the tribunal. The article considers this to be false but offers no actual argument to sustain this conclusion. It is not my place to say whether she should or should not have been disciplined and sacked, but this article is highly misleading on this case. Before we lament the state of free speech we need to be really sure that the cases we use to support such judgements hold water. If we go to the next example of the Hunter Biden story, this has been clearly revealed as invented falsehoods which is the reason why the entire press rightly rejected the mendacious New York Post story, so again the author does not do due diligence on the various examples cited. The general phenomenon referred to in this article has existed for a long time and was much more pronounced during the Cold War period when there were many dogmatic marxists in the West. Dogmatic moralistic views such as described here exist but are not nearly as powerful as the author suggests, and he himself acknowledges that it is not actually an organised movement. Liberal democracy and society’s commitment to its values which includes free speech are much more robust then this article seems to presume. Moreover, it is right that we should fight racial discrimination and discrimination against persons of different sexual orientation. These are important advances in society. The kind of discourse offered in this article threatens a return to oppressive attitudes that plagued society in the past.
Very good article, thank you. Resisting and challenging lies is a powerful and simple and do-able option for all of us. So is the art of being truthful, and communicating a positive vision of what western society mostly has been, and for the moment still is.
Still, there’s a big philosophical problem, no? How to define “truth”?
Objective truth isn’t that hard to find unless you don’t want it to be there at all.
Capital punishment? Abortion? War? Torture? Bioengineering? How can any of these be decided strictly on the basis of science? The Modern Age worshipped at the altar of Positivism and so could as easily as easily pronounce Pro-Life is true, politically incorrect, as the former religionist, a sin; but, we’re now Post-Modern s declaring the word itself untrue. …and I think Aristotle has the final, most profound, word: “poetry is truer than history [fact].” compassing both.
But finally, the idea of a Ministry of Truth which rules on truth and heresy, and enforces correctness is crudely reactionary and will as infallibly produce samizdat and sycophants. In this sense, Trump was thus ironically tonic.
nobody ever claimed objective truth could solve all human problems. The claim made by me here and by lots of others, is simply that objective truth exists. The fact of its existence doesn’t mean it can end war or make a determination about abortion, etc. I see goalposts moving…
Is it true or false that human life has transcendent value? Or does its only value consist in the material value of set of relations (economic, social, political) with other natural organisms and nature in general?
No need to be defensive. I’m unable to answer the question objectively. Positivism claims the one; Hellenic Xtianity, the other. And both are substantially true. But, Pomo says both are nonsense; that all “truth” is interpretation.
I think there is some truth to what this article is saying. But here is the problem. The right itself has its own intolerance that is just as pervasive and might even be more powerful.
Welcome to the future:
https://off-guardian.org/20…
An excellent essay, and an apposite warning of what may come.
However come the Spring, when “the drum begins to beat” and unemployment stands at many millions, most of this nonsense will be confined to the bonfire, hopefully with some of these virtue signalling malefactors.
“and gentleman in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not
here, and hold their manhoods cheap, whilst any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s Day”
If only that were true. It’s hard to believe that it’s not going to get worse with large scale unemployment and resulting relative poverty coming down the tracks.
This authoritarianism is the standard, a return to the norm. The powerful and the ‘clergy’ dictate what is to be said and done.
Our brief decades of freedom are the anomaly in history.
Don’t despair, there was the Pax Romana! The ‘excesses’ of which we have yet to surpass.
Authoritarianism has a feeble record in England, it tends to flourish among, as Kipling put it, ” lesser breeds without the Law”. We are still a long way from requiring the services of an Oliver Cromwell, advantageous as that might be.
Sadly I fear you are correct.
History has shown that economic disaster rather than body count is usually what it takes for the public at large to reach the “emperor has no clothes” tipping point.
Nobody will give a crap about BIPOC ‘lived experiences’ or ‘systemic racism’ when they’re fighting for the last can of beans on the shelf.
Another piece which is very relevant to this piece is “Own Nothing and Be Happy”: The Great Reset’s Vision of the Future ” by Colin Todhunter, I tried to post a link to this but it was deleted. No reason was given. It abided by all the Comment Policy standards.
You can be sure that the people writing things like ‘Own Nothing and Be Happy’ own a lot of stuff themselves.
Perhaps you should read it. It’s an ironic title. I wld give you the link but last time I did that it was deleted. If you are interested duck.duck it.
Duck Duck the title before jumping to conclusions
Hello Unherd
Pathologist: ‘Mass testing in Liverpool shows testing we have had has failed.’
A consultant pathologist has told talkRADIO the mass testing of Liverpool has proven the original coronavirus tests “failed.”
Speaking to Julia Hartley-Brewer, Dr Clare Craig said she was initially against the idea of mass testing, but “what’s happened in Liverpool has completely turned the tables.”
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has said more than 44,000 people have taken part in the city’s mass coronavirus testing pilot, which began on Friday. Dr Craig says only 0.5% of those testing were found to be positive.
“What that means is we have a really good test at showing who has definite Covid. It has shown up the testing that we’ve had to have failed.
“Mass testing the whole of Liverpool is not the key.
“We need to be re-testing people who have been misdiagnosed and get the diagnosis right.”
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Brilliant article, thanks Niall. “Control Freaks” as ever out to “protect folks”! The interesting notion for me is, often it is not “Big Brother” that protects the “people”,.. it fellow citizens. In fact questionably, it is “The State” (&/or the corruption of it!) that preys on “the people” using “tricks” as noted in this article). Do support Assange…hundreds of “people” Worldwide are protesting to Free & protect him from this gross injustice…& in the end also protect ourselves from ever advancing “State Tyranny” …Do go to all worthwhile demonstrations if you can…Politicians hate them!! Cheers again Niall.
Jo Cox”RIP.
Around the terminology thing, the best phrase I have heard that sums the whole “thing” up is “Liberal Fascism”
Thank you for this excellent article!
For a moment I thought it was a statue of Corbyn being toppled.
Great stuff guys! – Bogbrush.
For quite a while now I have been feeling frustrated at the endless reams of nonsense and hypocrisy being spat out by the media. The way we are expected to agree or be denounced as ” part of the problem ” makes me worried for the future of the UK.
The writer of this article has done a great job, previous to reading this article I had never heard of the “Cathedral”, this name relates to a group I have held in contempt for a while now. They patronise people who identify as non-white and come down hard on those who dare to disagree with their new orthodoxy.
Soft Totalitarianism……a good name, but destined to morph into something harder I think.
YOU CAN TRUST THOSE WHO LIVED UNDER COMMUNIST REGIME. THEY ARE LIKE THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE.
“We too are asked to swallow many lies ” not just Christians, to whom Dreher’s book is principally addressed, but cultural and social conservatives of all kinds. In resisting the spread of such lies…”
Mr. Gooc’s approach to resistance is the spread of lies clothed in the High Church political cant all good monarchists appreciate.
You are living in the wrong century, or is it too cold on Mt Hood?
The whole point of this is not that people find those words offensive. They don’t. It’s more that definitions keep getting changed so as to keep people on their toes, thus making it harder to speak truth to power. We’re rapidly losing control of our countries as they succumb to cultural and political pressures from elsewhere.
Very well put. I am going through ‘Live Not By Lies’ with a number of friends and inviting them to form small groups of their own among fellow Christians and/or the civically concerned. Dreher learned from Soviet dissidents that small, cell groups were essential for living with honor and integrity in the face of a totalizing ideology that today commands the culture-shaping heights in the US and beyond. Would encourage any who share Dreher’s concern to find 4-5 friends with whom to discuss the book and then, to continue to gather going forward. Small groups and, I’d argue, orthodox religious institutions, will be the last bastion of freedom of speech and conscience.
I think there is some truth to what the article is saying of the left trying to repress viewpoints they find offensive. But here’s the thing. The right has its own ‘cancel culture’ that is just as pervasive and might even be more powerful.
Do you have any examples of this?
Here you go:
– Trump has weaponized anti-trust powers against media organisations whose coverage he dislikes. He has repeatedly ordered his cronies to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, which owns CNN.
– Trump has threatened to “revoke” licenses of media organisations whose coverage he dislikes such ac NBC.
– Trump has urged his followers to cancel subscriptions of to the cable companies that own the news organisation in question (for e.g. Comcast who owns MSNBC and NBC)
– Trump has weaponised the US postal service against Bezos who owns the Washington Post, a media organisation he dislikes.
– Trump has tried to block publication critical of him (for e.g. John Bolton and Mary Trump’s book) using the Justice Dept and the courts.
– Trump has encouraged/tacitly condoned violence against protestors, journalists and dissidents.
– Max Boot (a conservative columnist) was nearly fired from the WSJ for running an op-ed on Krugman. He was told that if his readers wanted to read more than one liberal column a week, they could turn to the NYT.
– When Stern at the City Journal wrote an article about “Trump’s hate filled campaign rallies” he was told “we’re steering clear of that now”. This pressure to toe the Trump line came because their publishers include strong Trump donors Rebekah Mercer/Paul Singer.
– The Weekly Standard was one of the most anti-Trump publications until it was shuttered at the end of 2018 by its owner, a major Republican donor named Anschutz.
– Prof Ciccariello-Maher (Drexel Univ) received numerous death threats for tweeting “All I Want for Xmas is White Genocide”
– Prof Cox (Orange Coast College) received death threats after giving a speech in which she called Trump “a racist & sexist megalomaniac”
– Professor Bond (Univ of Iowa) received threats of violence after discussing white supremacy in the context of ancient statues.
– Prof Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor (Princeton Univ) received death threats for criticizing Trump in a speech.
– Prof Curry (Texas A&M) faced racist threats after National Review ran a piece on comments he made on violence against whites during an interview rgd the movie Django Unchained.
– Prof Weinstein (Evergreen State College) received threats to his safety after he questioned the logic of a student request that all white students/faculty should stay off campus during a day of protest.
All very interesting. But Trump is NOT a ‘right-winger (or as we would say here in the UK, a ‘small-C’ conservative). He’s an economic ‘Liberal’, which is a left-wing theory (as is ‘Libertarianism’). True conservatism is wholly British. It occurs nowhere else on earth. It has no ‘ideology’. It’s the absence of an ideology, and is more a sceptical ‘disposition’. US ‘Conservatives’ are all Liberals.
that is some high grade snake oil you’re pushing
Pish as far as I can gather. He can’t seriously believe the crap he spouts.
I’d say he seriously believes he knows all and sees all and isn’t shy in saying so.
So the Libertarian party is left wing now?
Very good.
Conservatism is as much an ideology as any other crackpot political system.
Humankind has engaged in free trade, free from political interference, from the first time it figured out that trading decorative shells for a fishing hook was a good idea.
I think people ought to be able to self-define their politics, rather than have other people do it for them. The conservative right in the U.S isn’t liberal. That’s why there are liberals who oppose them. These days the liberals aren’t very liberal, and some conservatives don’t profess true conservatism, but that’s true in every country, including the UK.
Weinstein was not threatened by right wingers. It was the left who went after him. You contradict your own argument here. And is it really unusual that some people might find the desire for a white genocide to be offensive?
I see you left out the couple at Yale being forced out over students’ inability to handle Halloween costumes, or the Michigan State guy forced out for talking research done by his institution that showed racial bias was NOT an issue in cases where cops killed civilians.
The rest is a mishmash of ‘tried’ or ‘encouraged’ or whatnot that is nowhere near the actual firings that the left has engineered. Look no further than the case of Nick Sandman if you need a particularly egregious example of leftist overreach.
Read what I wrote in my previous post:
“I think there is some truth to what the article is saying of the left trying to repress viewpoints they find offensive”.
I didn’t deny that the Left could be intolerant. I pointed out that there is intolerance on the right too. I’m also arguing that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t start screaming that the left is waging war on free speech when you have a President prepared to use his power/authority to suppress controversial speech, and the right just applauds and extends his efforts.
I see you have left out a police union in St Louis that urged members to bombard a local store owner with calls, after he accused some officers of misconduct. Just one of several examples of police unions intimidating critics.
You also left out a physical assault on a reporter by a Republican candidate in Montana. And AG Sessions prosecution and re-prosecution of an activist who laughed at him during his confirmation hearing. Or his public refusals to rule out prosecuting journalists; or Trump’s vows to imprison his political rivals; or the WH’s demands that ESPN fire Jemele Hill; and let’s not forgot Trump’s attempt to chill press criticism by naming the media an ‘enemy of the people’. All of this have drawn cheers from the right.
You argue this is “nowhere near the actual firings that the left has engineered”. You’re entitled to that opinion. But this is 2020 and you have to be prepared that people might disagree and will have different opinions.
Read what I wrote in my previous post:
“I think there is some truth to what the article is saying of the left trying to repress viewpoints they find offensive”.
I didn’t deny that the Left could be intolerant. I pointed out that there is intolerance on the right too. I’m also arguing that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t start screaming that the left is waging war on free speech when you have a President prepared to use his power/authority to suppress controversial speech, and the right just applauds and extends his efforts.
I see you have left out a police union in St Louis that urged members to bombard a local store owner with calls, after he accused some officers of misconduct. Just one of several examples of police unions intimidating critics.
You also left out a physical assault on a reporter by a Republican candidate in Montana. And AG Sessions prosecution and re-prosecution of an activist who laughed at him during his confirmation hearing. Or his public refusals to rule out prosecuting journalists; or Trump’s vows to imprison his political rivals; or the WH’s demands that ESPN fire Jemele Hill; and let’s not forgot Trump’s attempt to chill press criticism by naming the media an ‘enemy of the people’. All of this have drawn cheers from the right.
You argue this is “nowhere near the actual firings that the left has engineered”. You’re entitled to that opinion. But this is 2020 and you have to be prepared that people might disagree and have different opinions to you.
RE: Prof Ciccariello-Maher (Drexel Univ) received numerous death threats for tweeting “All I Want for Xmas is White Genocide”
How awful. A call for genocide met by death threats. I’m thinking goose, gander.
I’m saying you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say the American left is waging war on free speech, insists that those on the left are ‘sensitive snowflakes’ who cannot sustain a dissenting view, and yet simultaneously and angrily demand that the state and society sanction the left for the expression of political views you find distasteful.
Incidentally, this was Prof Ciccariello’s explanation for his tweet:
“On Christmas Eve, I sent a satirical tweet about an imaginary concept, ‘white genocide.’ For those who haven’t bothered to do their research, ‘white genocide’ is an idea invented by white supremacists and used to denounce everything from interracial relationships to multicultural policies (and, most recently, against a tweet by State Farm Insurance). It is a figment of the racist imagination, it should be mocked, and I’m glad to have mocked it,”
You don’t have to agree with what he said but if you’re one of those people who believe the threat to free speech only comes from the left, this should give you pause.
I don’t want to sanction the left for political views I find distasteful. I want to sanction the ideas of cancel culture and critical race theory. They have no place in a free society. That being said, I have no wish to “cancel” those who support these ideas, people ought to be free to spout whatever nonsensical political platform they wish, as long as it doesn’t impinge on my right to do the same. Also, whatever the prof’s self-serving, after-the-fact explanation, calling for “white genocide” could be interpreted as incitement, and incitement is one of the exceptions to free speech, always has been.
Sure, that’s certainly one interpretation of the Prof’s remarks. Problem is when President Trump says “when the looting starts the shooting starts” or calls the press “the enemy of the people”, or “I’d like to punch him in the face”, and the left calls it ‘incitement’, the right just laughs and calls the left ‘liberal snowflakes’. Its that double standard which I dislike. I have very little time too for ‘cancel culture’ or ‘critical race theory’, in that we are in agreement.
And are you seriously citing the Evergreen U/Bret Weinstein case as an example of excessive “Trumpism”?????
In the UK, off the top of my head:
Newspapers with headlines calling Judges who rule against the Government ‘enemies of the people’.
Government sponsored ‘ Go Home’ vans touring regions with high BAME populations telling people to leave the country or face arrest.
Forced illegal deportation of British Citizens in the UK’s ‘Windrush Scandal’.
Judges: it appears you didn’t like the criticism. Rather than demonstrate that it’s undeserved, you apparently want to close it down on the premise that you disagree with it.
Go home: wasn’t the publicity about telling people here illegally to leave? Or are you saying that immigrants like me needn’t have bothered to obey the law?
Windrush: hamfisted, unfair, badly handled though it might have been, at core Windrush was about people born in a Commonwealth country not being able to prove that they were legally here. (If they were born here, they were automatically British citizens.)
People born in other Commonwealth countries apart from the West Indies who were bought here as children have had similar bureaucratic issues.
Judges: An example of conservatives in a position of power (by virtue of owning the media) trying to shut down criticism (by an independent judiciary) of illegal actions.
Go home: Technically, yes. In the real world it was an attempt by a conservative government to make people with a different coloured skin from the majority of that government feel unwelcome and reassure people with a similar skin colour to the government that something was being done in order to win votes.
Windrush: It wasn’t a bureaucratic issue – it was a policy attempt by a conservative government to make people with a different coloured skin from the majority of that government feel unwelcome and reassure people with a similar skin colour to the government that something was being done in order to win votes.
Judges: The Daily Mail is but one of many voices in the media. You think the judges were right. Others didn’t and still don’t. Judges are not above criticism.
Go home: I’m an immigrant who obeyed the law. Everyone should, without exception. No matter what their skin colour.
Windrush: People born in other Commonwealth countries had problems. Including white ones. As I said.
sadly it’s you who has an obsession with skin colour, not the government.
To my mind, one of the things about the British system that is superior to the USA system is that judges are not political appointments, or perhaps more precisely, that judges don’t need to follow political fashions in order to be re-elected (supreme court judges excepted, where the USA system allows someone to stay on well into their dotage). So newspapers attacking judges (irrespective of whether it’s a left or right wing attack) is a disaster!
They seemed to be political when the Supreme Court judged Boris. I got the impression that they judged that he had transgressed a law they had just invented.
The trouble with the Windrush scandal was twofold.
1. Records at the time were not as detailed as they would be now, and apparently what records there were had been destroyed.
2. Many older staff in the appropriate department had retired and the younger people had no knowledge of Windrush.
Presumably that’s why you never see left wing comedians on the telly and gay people in public life are forced to hide their sexuality?
This is what I wrote “I think there is some truth to what the article is saying of the left trying to repress viewpoints they find offensive”.
This is what I wrote “I think there is some truth to what the article is saying of the left trying to repress viewpoints they find offensive’. I think we are in agreement, are we not?
Read my response to CL van Beek.
Gay people are forced to hide their sexuality???? Really???? Maybe 40 years ago. As for left-wing comics, ever heard of Trevor Noah? Steven Colbert? Samantha Bee? Chelsea Handler? On the UK side, Alexei Sayle?
Interesting John. Can you give me an example of a person losing their job for saying something liberal?
Steven Salaita lost his job offer at the Univ of Illinois in 2015 whose pro-Palestinian comments were perceived to be insensitive to Jews. Ciccariello-Maher was forced out of his tenured position at Drexel Univ after his Twitter post mocked the notion of “white genocide”.
Yes, you can count the incidents on one hand. Those cancelled – or in some cases so disgusted they quit (see Greenwald, Glenn) – by members of the church of political correctlness are so numerous it almost doesn’t cause a fuss when another one is savaged for the mildest of disagreements. J K Rowling, for example.
David Shaw asked for “an example of a person losing their job”. I gave him two examples. What exactly is your point? The article argued that the left is intolerant. I agreed. But I pointed out that the right can be intolerant too and I gave several examples of this. The point is the INTOLERANCE. I don’t care if it comes from the left or right. I don’t care if its 1 googolplex examples from the left and 1 from the right. I don’t care about the numbers. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t talk about the Left’s war on free speech when you have a president prepared to use the power and authority of government to chill or suppress controversial speech, and the right who now applauds and extends his efforts. Those that insist that the left are sensitive snowflakes who cannot sustain a dissenting view, CANNOT simultaneously angrily demand that the state and society sanction the left for the expression of political views it finds distasteful.
David Shaw asked for “an example of a person losing their job”. I gave him two examples. What exactly is your point? The article argued that the left is intolerant. I agreed. But I pointed out that the right can be intolerant too and I gave several examples of this. The point is the INTOLERANCE. I don’t care if it comes from the left or right. I don’t care if its 1 googolplex examples from the left and 1 from the right. I don’t care about the numbers.
According to the Centre for Strategic & International studies Far-right terrorism has significantly outpaced terrorism from other types of perpetrators, including from far-left networks and individuals inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Right-wing attacks and plots account for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the United States since 1994, and the total number of right-wing attacks and plots has grown significantly during the past six years. Right-wing extremists perpetrated two thirds of the attacks and plots in the United States in 2019 and over 90% between January 1 and May 8, 2020.
But does this make far-left terrorism acceptable because they are more numbers of right-wing plots/attacks? Of course not.
You can’t have it both ways. I’m going to call out intolerance on both the left and right.
IN Europe far-right terrorism pales in comparison to that committed by Islamic extremists.
Those statistics from the CIS are bull. They call all anti government activities right wing, which boosts the stats, but of course that has not been even close to the truth.
Intolerance is wrong on any side. It is MUCH MUCH more prevalent on the left.
Do you have any data to support this view?
This assessment is not just from CIS. It is also the assessment of the Director of the FBI, Christopher Ray (“within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole of racially motivated violent extremism is, I think the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of it” ) and also the acting Director of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf (white supremacists pose “the most persistent and lethal threat” to the US) and that of the acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Ken Cucinelli (“when white supremacists act as terrorists, more people per incident are killed. It isn’t a belief; its just looking at the data”).
Do you have any data to support this view?
This assessment is not just from CIS. It is also the assessment of the Director of the FBI, Christopher Ray (“within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole of racially motivated violent extremism is, I think the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of it” ) and also the acting Director of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf (white supremacists pose “the most persistent and lethal threat” to the US) and that of the acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Ken Cucinelli (“when white supremacists act as terrorists, more people per incident are killed. It isn’t a belief; its just looking at the data”).
Do you have any data to support this view?
This assessment is not just from CIS. It is also the assessment of the Director of the FBI, Christopher Ray (“within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole of racially motivated violent extremism is, I think the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of it” ) and also the acting Director of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf (white supremacists pose “the most persistent and lethal threat” to the US) and that of the acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Ken Cucinelli (“when white supremacists act as terrorists, more people per incident are killed. It isn’t a belief; its just looking at the data”
this thread is a whinge fest of those who have practiced the very things they claim to detest for…well…forever.
the shoe now on the other foot pinches.
It is not a whinge it’s a very serious matter….& this “thinking” is what facilitates people waking up one day living under murderous tyranny & afraid to say “boo to a goose”…It happens!..Free speech vis a vie “Police State” systems to cow humanity is essential for humanity to evolve & progress & become far more Just & free… The price of liberty is eternal vigilance for all that wish to be free …& not live as slaves!
your whinging from that pinching shoe on your foot is noted.
So to you it’s about revenge?
it is “about” the hypocrisy and the willful ignorance
this is a general lie.
please specify…
total nonsense, and evidence-free, of course.
empirical evidence…look it up
normally when one makes a fact-free assertion — or any assertion for that matter — one doesn’t ask the other person to provide the evidence.
total nonsense, and evidence-free, of course.
I am confident that Nigel Farage and Laurence Fox will have this problem sorted out in no time at all. Come the next election, their parties will be swept into power with the backing of the right wing press and the votes of the privileged, but oh so oppressed, white majority.
Dearie me, what a load of nonsense this talk of totalitarianism is and bandying the word around in articles like this is a gratuitous insult to those people that have lived there lives under genuinely oppressive regimes. Culture war, it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. signifying nothing.
Yet, as Mr Gooch says in his piece the definition he uses fits with Hannah Arendt’s. If you think he’s wrong about it fitting or the definition of totalitarianism being wrong please share your reasoning. Until then, however, I don’t think he’s “bandying the word around.”
You are obviously unaware that numerous Democrats and their supporters in the media are preparing ‘lists’ of Trump supporters and enablers, all of whom are to be ostracised at best and punished severely at worst.
The people that have lived under genuinely oppressive regimes are the ones raising the alarm, they’ve seen it all before. The Eastern Europeans, the Cubans and Venezuelans didn’t drag themselves out of the pan to end up in the fire.
The collapse into illiberalism and tyranny doesn’t just suddenly happen, it’s a process. When you’ve criminalised speech and made the truth no defense you’re well on the way to that particular hell.
Centuries of Christian soft and hard totalitarianism in Western Europe and the Americas, including in Britain, are finally being addressed and challenged. I can appreciate that is difficult for some.
50 years ago you were put in prison for being gay now you are asked to show some respect when talking publicly about gay people. The current situation is not totalitarianism.
‘…hostility to hierarchy, natural distinction, traditional Western cultural norms, or any concept of limits on the perfectibility of human societies.’
I think the biblical Jesus would support hostility to those things.
I appreciate this article for articulating so clearly the views of some of those who feel threatened by the societal and cultural changes that are taking place and by putting them in the context of moral choices. More discussion of the morality of believing that black and poor people are poor because of their own lack of ambition or talent, that gay people are condemned to hell because of who they fancy or that Asian kids aren’t committed to football because they want to be accountants would be welcome.
Yes but western liberals have been moving away from a hegemonic cultural model enforced through coercion. You seem keen to reinstate it.
Is totalitarianism acceptable as long it’s your views which are been enforced?
“now you are asked to show some respect”
It’s impossible of course to know why you said this but it strikes me as either willfully naïve or intentionally disingenuous.
People are literally losing their livelihoods and being publicly ostracized for opinions or mere utterances that may have been expressed decades ago.
Identity Politics and Equality of Outcome are the proven tactics of totalitarianism throughout history.
Proven to fail.
The more astute practitioners of this Dark Art have always drawn in the unwary by selling “bottom rail on top now” or “turnabout is fair play” moral justice snake oil.
Supplanting the individual spirit with Identity group divisiveness is the key.
Victims – all members of which are innocent.
Oppressors – all members of which are guilty.
Bolsheviks Love Misery has cleverly disguised their ‘bring it all down’ anarchy with shiny and attractive ‘racial justice’ gift wrap.
It’s obvious of course but just look at the number of ‘do-gooders’ that have been taken in or the cadres of political opportunists that want a piece of the action.
It’s no accident that the current crop of activists have disregarded the “character – not colour” message of MLK.
In their minds it eliminates having to face the awkward hypocrisy that they are using the very same “Those People” moral classification as a weapon to silence opposition.
Any subjective interpretation of any individual’s expression – however innocuous it may be – against any individual in a Victim Group can now be used as undeniable proof of continued pervasive ‘systemic’ oppression of that entire group.
This is just getting started.
Stalin would be proud.
“
“now you are asked to show some respect”
It’s impossible of course to know why you said this but it strikes me as either willfully naïve or intentionally disingenuous.”
My money is on disingenuous. He’s a true believer and and a “fellow traveler”.
“Identity Politics and Equality of Outcome are the proven tactics of totalitarianism throughout history.” otherwise know as the driving force of the British Empire for the past 500 hundred years”give or take.
The British Empire brought a lot of good to the world. Yes, it had its bad sides and it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than most other empires and countries.
the many points of conflict and despair around the globe today are the legacy of the British Empire.
Can you list a few?
go to your favorite source for world news any day of the week
more lazy general lies
said yet another sad and despairing Saint George’s Cross flag waver.
Insults and bullshit seem to be the sum total of your commenting ability.
more evidence-free crap.
Rubbish, and you know it.
ridiculous and based on nothing.
Where do you get those flattering 500 or so years from, exactly?
Hardly an Empire before Buxar, 1764, and finished in say 1960, with the release of Nigeria from bondage, as you would have it.
For the second time, what happened to your lovely dog?
your description about “the morality of believing” this or that is that of a kindergartener. Nobody serious believes black or poor people are poor only because of lack of ambition, certainly nobody believes gays go to hell. Seems like it’s you who has a fetish for group identity, like all the totalidentitarians.
You do know the difference between “asking” and “demanding” or “ordering”, don’t you? The Woke never ask where their beliefs are concerned.
You can lose the high and mighty tone because you’re talking crap. centuries of Christian soft and hard totalitarianism have been challenged and addressed for more than 100 years. Further, your smug and glib summary about what people think about “black and poor” people is a reflection of your own mindset and bears no resemblance to what has been discussed here and elsewhere. Short version: You’re full of it.