Good opinion piece on the left's cancel culture and thought crime

[Long Duck Dong]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...-bedrooms.html

Do you believe in thought crime? In picking people off, one by one, till everybody agrees with just a single point of view? Each week, we see this world come a little closer.

Many of the victims are famous. But people who are not remotely well known are writing to me every week to say that they, too, now fear for their livelihoods.

Still more are keeping their heads down, fearing what will happen if they dare to speak out against the dogmas of the time and the new totalitarians who promote them.

There’s been a steadily rising tide of conformity in recent years. Increasingly, we have been told what we are allowed to say, hear, see and know.

Swarming over the internet, the Left-wing mob is waging a campaign to silence dissenting voices and get free-thinking people removed from their jobs. And they have succeeded. Now the wokerati want to enter the bedroom and say who we may sleep with, too.

Take last week’s attempt to ‘cancel’ the Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer. Her crime? Nothing she has said or thought.

Instead, the online trolls had been enraged to discovered who she is dating. The supposed culprit is an American lacrosse player called James Burke.

His crime? Mr Burke is alleged to be a registered Republican and a Donald Trump supporter. Cue an internet meltdown and a demand by activists that Comer be prevented from working again.

It’s ludicrous. How can anyone demand that we restrict ourselves to partners who are in 100 per cent ideological alignment with the views of a Left-wing sect?

The bullying of inoffensive Jodie Comer might be a new low, but I’ve seen it coming for some time.

Two years ago, a 26-year-old racing driver called Conor Daly lost his sponsors because of something said in the 1980s. Daly competes in the full-blooded series run by Nascar – the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing – which is much-loved in the southern USA.

Yet consider this: Daly was not alive at the time of the alleged offence. How had he mis-spoken before he’d even been born?

The answer is he hadn’t. Daly lost his sponsorship because his racing driver father was alleged to have made a racial slur three decades earlier. And there was no reprieve.

This totalitarian instinct has crept up on us with amazing ease. It is the product of a vindictive Leftism which used only to reside on certain US university campuses.

Yet today, boosted hugely by the internet, this half-baked ideology, tribal and dogmatic, obsessed with the language of racial, sexual and gender politics, is running riot.

All decent attitudes, not least the British idea of fair play, have been driven out. It is perfectly normal to have a point of view and argue it. It is perfectly fine to dislike and even disdain some ideas. Who doesn’t?

But no one has the right to get people fired or made unemployable because of views that differ from their own, let alone because of their partner’s views.

That is neither democratic nor acceptable. It is fascism. Red fascism, but fascism all the same.

[FKAri]

People are actually less sensitive now than they used to be in this country. But two things have strongly counteracted that: We are increasingly divergent in our opinions and modern media allows any of those opinions to reach the person who would be most offended by them. There's no easy solution to this but live and let live is certainly much better than "just don't be offensive" which is problematic for obvious reasons.

[fsvr54]

No way dude, people are WAYY more sensitive.

You used to be able to use the word fakkit no problem out loud in public with no worries.

[hateraid]

For sure people are more sensitive. And more entitled. Opinions are valued over people's own family. Politics are more divided than ever.

[Cleverness]

People are actually less sensitive now than they used to be in this country. But two things have strongly counteracted that: We are increasingly divergent in our opinions and modern media allows any of those opinions to reach the person who would be most offended by them. There's no easy solution to this but live and let live is certainly much better than "just don't be offensive" which is problematic for obvious reasons.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but in what ways are people less sensitive?

as fsvr54 points out, you used to be able to say anything and speech would not get someone fired/shamed so easily. A Mexican man literally just lost his job because a crowd was sensitive to his hand making the "OK" gesture.

When I think of the word sensitive I think of fragile & delicate and the opposite is tough and resilient.

I think we've become more sensitive/fragile/delicate and less tough/resilient.

[iamgine]

The problem is, not many is fighting back. The insane minority can win when no one fights them. Why do you think Conor Daly lost his sponsorship? Because the sponsors are afraid they'd lose business. If no one is going to care to support them if they stayed and support Conor, why should they stay? In essence, we give them the power by not speaking out.

Trump is doing a good job in fighting and calling this out. We need the sane majority to speak out and take a hard stance as well. It's hard though, because if you're sane, you'd tend not to want to be involved in this mess.

[Sulico]

I came here to read " freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences" trash from trash people. How is it not here yet?

[FKAri]

No way dude, people are WAYY more sensitive.

You used to be able to use the word fakkit no problem out loud in public with no worries.

For sure people are more sensitive. And more entitled. Opinions are valued over people's own family. Politics are more divided than ever.

More divided. That's for sure. I'd also agree with more entitled. But definitely not more sensitive and probably not less resilient either as Cleverness mentioned.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but in what ways are people less sensitive?

as fsvr54 points out, you used to be able to say anything and speech would not get someone fired/shamed so easily. A Mexican man literally just lost his job because a crowd was sensitive to his hand making the "OK" gesture.

When I think of the word sensitive I think of fragile & delicate and the opposite is tough and resilient.

I think we've become more sensitive/fragile/delicate and less tough/resilient.

The example fsvr54 used has more to do with changing norms than sensitivity. Try saying something anti-Christian now publicly vs 30 years ago. Black Sabbath got shit for merely discussing the occult despite profusely professing their Christianity. Tons of more examples like Howard Stern, Marilyn Manson, etc. The FCC in general has eased. I don't imagine Reagan or Carter getting away with saying the kinds of things Trump does. Public discourse was much more sanitary in years past. It's just that now the line between what is public and private has blurred and people are more aware that what they say, even privately, could be recorded, misconstrued and used against them publicly.

We as a nation were also more aligned in our values which means there's less to be outraged about in general. It's not sensitivity so much as people now having the power and tools to mobilize like minded people in opposition to an unfavorable opinion. And since there's more incompatible view points it happens a lot more.

[RRR3]

Cancel culture is retarded.

[Patrick Chewing]

Cancel culture is retarded.

[TheMan]

Cancel culture is retarded.

I don't think any ISHer here agrees with cancel culture. I firmly believe I have the right to call Patty a fat banana republic mongrel without any major reprecussions because It's my freedom of speech...I'm sure he would agree with me 100%

[RRR3]

I don't think any ISHer here agrees with cancel culture. I firmly believe I have the right to call Patty a fat banana republic mongrel without any major reprecussions because It's my freedom of speech...I'm sure he would agree with me 100%

Ehhhh there’s probably a few libs on here who support it or at least are afraid to say they don’t support it.

[Cleverness]

I shouldn't have quoted him. My main point was:

When I think of the word sensitive I think of fragile & delicate and the opposite is tough and resilient.

I think we've become more sensitive/fragile/delicate and less tough/resilient.