Month: June 2020

That we have reached the point at which the majority of people are genuinely afraid of having difficult conversations is a tragedy for everyone. We are right to be concerned when mobs are able to decide which historical monuments should be destroyed through force of intimidation. We are right to object to groundless accusations of racism as a means to stifle discussion. We are right to be appalled when journalists are hounded out of their jobs for wrongthink, or when dictionary definitions are changed due to political pressure, rather than the natural evolution of language. We are right to be nervous about race-based collective guilt, and quasi-religious mass displays of supplication and conformity. We are right to challenge the wisdom of removing offensive content from entertainment services or libraries. We are right to promote compassion and empathy in the face of those who would sooner dehumanise and bully anyone who questions their ideological worldview. We are right to decry violence when so many are seemingly oblivious to the sanctity of human life. We are right to be worried when racial division is being sown in the name of anti-racism. We are right to be alert to the signs of a creeping form of authoritarianism that conceals itself beneath a veneer of Social Justice. Above all, we are right to risk standing up for the values of a liberal democracy in the maelstrom of a seemingly endless culture war.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/12/we-need-to-talk-about-black-lives-matterm/