Andrew Doyle, host of Free Speech Nation on GB News and member of the Free Speech Union’s Advisory Council, is publishing a book called The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World and the Mail on Sunday has an excerpt. It begins:
We are living through a time in which unproven accusations are once again enough to see a person damned.
Charges of ‘racism’, ‘homophobia’, ‘transphobia’ and even ‘fascism’ are commonplace and no evidence is required to secure a ‘cancellation’. People have had their careers destroyed and personal relationships ruined simply for expressing unfashionable opinions.
It will be oddly familiar to anyone who has seen Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. In the 1953 dramatisation of the 17th Century Salem witch trials, our tragic hero John Proctor cries out: “Is the accuser always holy now”
The trials of Salem, a Puritan community in Massachusetts, lasted a little over a year, from February 1692 to May 1693. In that time, more than 200 people were accused, 19 hanged, five others had perished in jail and one, farmer Giles Corey, had been pressed to death with boulders for refusing to enter a guilty/not-guilty plea.
And their tormentors? A group of children who had stumbled upon the means to become the most powerful members of the community. Their histrionic accusations could see fellow citizens executed on the basis of ‘spectral evidence’ alone – what we might today refer to as ‘lived experience’, the phrase used by the likes of Meghan and Harry.
And today, just like in Salem, those who attempt to apply reason and logic, who dare to stand up for the accused, make themselves vulnerable by doing so.
As Miller’s anti-hero says, “the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom” safe in the knowledge that those who cross them are the next to be condemned.
For those of us who have found ourselves caught in the culture wars of the present – and I have often been vilified for having created a satirical character, Titania McGrath, the “radical intersectionalist poet and Twitter activist” – the parallels are obvious.
Such patterns recur wherever reason is abandoned and fear prevails, be that during the 1950s McCarthyism that inspired Miller, or the ideological capture of today’s institutions and the trickle-down orthodoxies that followed.
THE new religion of ‘wokeness’ now dominates all of our major cultural, educational, political and corporate bodies.
Its high priests make grand claims of moral purity and brook no dissent, a mindset which has led to the development of today’s ‘cancel culture’.
They seek to control public discourse by deeming certain terms ‘problematic’ or supporting legislation against ‘hate speech’. They require no concrete evidence of sin in order to detect and denounce the sinners in our midst.
Phrases such as ‘social justice’, ‘anti-racism’ and ‘equity’ mislead people into believing that those who utter them are on the right side of history. What we are witnessing is the march of online zealots destroying people’s livelihoods and reputations, all the while proclaiming their own virtue, using hashtags such as #BeKind.
Like the Salem Trials, they inflict their punishments while claiming to be on the side of the angels.
Although today’s ‘heretics’ are unlikely to be burned at the stake, their inquisitors are convinced they must convert for their own good. It is the legitimisation of bullying on a grand scale.
Worth reading in full.
The New Puritans by Andrew Doyle is published by Constable on September 8TH, priced £20. To pre-order a copy for £18 visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937 before September 12TH. Free UK delivery on orders over £20. Alternatively, order the Kindle version from Amazon.co.uk here.
Stop Press: The Free Speech Union has organised a Q&A between Andrew Doyle and me, followed by a book launch party, on September 27th in Central London. But it’s a members-only event, so if you’d like to come you’ll have to join the Free Speech Union. Membership starts at just £2.49 a month. See here for more details.

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The only crime committed here was by the police. Wasting police time.
Just the term “hate crime” makes me shudder.
When did hating something become a crime?
Terrifying, just terrifying.
I don’t think hatred comes naturally to most people. I think it’s usually in response to an event or stimulus. I find myself more inclined to hate certain groups the more I’m told I must love or respect or approve of them otherwise I will be considered Literally Hitler.
Who decides a word or action was motivated by hate? Apparently anyone hearing that word or seeing that action can decide it was hate and therefore it is infact HATE. —How bizarre.
It’s perfect. The more opaque and nebulous the crime definition, the more blanket control they can exert. It’s literally Orwell’s wrongthink.
“we take any allegation of hate crime seriously”
Pity they don’t seem to take actual real crimes seriously any more.
Is there an actual “hate crime” law?
John James is correct. Pride now has nothing to do with the gay community. I’ve even read of gays being called ”TERFs” by the trans loonies FFS! Just one example of how this whole shebang is now used as a vehicle for gender and trans ideologies to push on with their agenda to recruit the vulnerable and infect society with their poisonous madness;
”A female-only lesbian advocacy group in France was excluded from their local Pride parade on the basis that they did not allow the membership of trans-identified males. Femmes Entre Elles was labeled “transphobic” for restricting its advocacy to issues faced by women.
Femmes Entre Elles, which translates to “Women Among Themselves,” is a single-sex association for lesbian and bisexual women that has operated for over 30 years. It has been involved in campaigns to support women’s sex-based rights and the rights of lesbian women.
But on May 27, the group was informed via email that they were not welcome to participate in the annual Pride march in Rennes, which was held on June 17. Leading local LGBT center Iskis explained that the decision was made because Femmes Entre Elles did not welcome the membership of men who claim to be women.”
https://reduxx.info/france-female-only-lesbian-groups-barred-from-pride-month-events-over-transphobia/
And these two peeps from the group Gays Against Groomers make a lot of sense in this short clip;
”There is indeed a “civil war” happening as some in the LGB community try to distance themselves from the TQIA++ because of the madness. Especially the grooming and indoctrination of minors in places like over-sexualized drag shows. They’re both standing with Olympus Spa and are against transgender women with penis’ entering this women only facility. Incredible insight from both of them.”
https://twitter.com/choeshow/status/1670312589992280064?cxt=HHwWgIDS5e2ckq4uAAAA
Trans activists are often anti gay and lesbian as research has shown that a lot of people who go through a gender questioning phase mature into happy well adjusted same sex attracted adults. Convincing them that they’re actually of a different gender is therefore highly damaging to a lot of young people who are gay or lesbian but have yet to figure out that’s their true sexuality. More gays and lesbians need to stand up against the idealogues e.g. by having nothing to do with stonewall or the traditional pride movement and joining the LGB Alliance.
Well there’s not a trans person in sight ( at least, not an attention-seeking ‘in yer face’ one anyway ) but I’d be interested in hearing what men think of Bud Light’s new ad. There’s like, zillions of other lagers and beers on the market so I think anyone who chooses to spend money on this kack is just mental tbh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg7iiVKJ2CU&ab_channel=BudLight
I don’t watch much TV nor am I exposed to much advertising in other contexts but I find the majority of the ads I see distasteful or annoying. A lot of them are blatantly political. The advertising industry must be quite a horrible one to work in.
https://www.technocracy.news/universal-basic-income-and-the-anti-human-agenda/
“No less than eighty UBI trials are underway globally, and many more have already started and ended.”
On the back of the bus in front of me at this moment is a police advert telling me that saying “nice legs, Hun” is a hate crime and gives me a number to report it to!
That is really sick.
https://thedailybeagle.substack.com/p/near-to-zero-sterilisation-viruses
Sterilisation was baked in to the so-called “vaccines.”
“Everything is now policed except crime.”————I think I heard that on the Mark Steyn Show . ————–Hey Mark we love you mate. Maybe Laurence Fox could have really confused the police though had he burned a golliwog.
I DO like this guy. Well done Lozza.