Free speech needs saving from the tyranny of woke minorities, Jonathan Sumption has said. Speaking to the New Zealand Free Speech Union, the former Supreme Court Justice said that no one is entitled to intellectual safety as he warned of the devastating impact of “online lynch mobs”. Here’s an excerpt of his talk, as published by UnHerd.
John Stuart Mill anticipated many things, but he did not anticipate the internet. Social media can conjure up instant online lynch mobs. They make a powerful amplifier available to the most intolerant strands of opinion. The algorithms which determine what material is placed under people’s noses expose them only to sentiments which they already agree with, thus intensifying their opinions and eliminating not only dissent but even nuance and moderation. Mill assumed that the pressure to conform would come from self-righteous majorities. But social media has conferred immense power on self-righteous minorities, often quite small minorities.
The most remarkable illustration of this is the vicious campaign currently being conducted to silence those who believe that gender is based on an immutable biological fact. Polling evidence suggests that the overwhelming majority of people believe that gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered by medical or surgical intervention, let alone by simple choice. That view is consistent with the current scientific orthodoxy, which regards gender as binary. Yet pressure from a noisy minority has created a situation in which the public expression of the prevailing and probably correct view about gender can lead to dismissal from employment, the cancellation of speaking engagements and publication contracts, and an avalanche of public shaming and abuse.
John Stuart Mill taught that the only purpose for which power might properly be exercised against individuals against their will was to prevent harm to others. But what we are presently witnessing is a subtle redefinition of the whole concept of harm to include the harm said to be caused by having to endure contradiction. The argument is that words wound, especially when they relate to another person’s identity or status; a university or a workplace where a person is exposed to disagreement must therefore be regarded, in the standard catchphrase, as ‘unsafe’.
The difference between violence and words is obvious. Violence is coercive. Words, even if offensive, are not coercive except in those cases where they are calculated to provoke violence. Yet in North America, Britain and much of the Anglosphere, this notion of harm has captured institutions. Recent research in the United States suggests that 29% of university professors have been pressured by university authorities into avoiding controversial subjects; 16% have either been disciplined or threatened with discipline for their words, their teaching or their academic research, while another 7% say that they have been investigated. Those working on any subject involving ethnic or religious sensitivities are particularly vulnerable. More than 80% of students report that they self-censor their work for fear of stepping out of line.
Underlying much of this debate is a fundamental challenge to the objective notion of harm. When interest groups object to someone’s opinion, harm is whatever they perceive as harm. It depends on ‘lived experience’, as the phrase goes, particularly when the offended group is an ethnic, religious or sexual minority. The desire to accommodate minorities who feel themselves oppressed is understandable. It assists social inclusion. But carried to its logical extreme it gives them a right of veto, an entitlement to silence opinions. And it is being carried to its logical extreme. In many countries, including Britain, hate speech is in some circumstances a criminal offence or an aggravating factor when accompanied by some other criminal conduct. The British police and prosecution authorities have agreed upon a definition of their own devising, according to which a hate crime means any action which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice. In other words, they have adopted a subjective definition dependent on the feelings of the victim rather than an objective assessment of the words used.
Worth reading in full.
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As news of Mr Anderson’s defection to Reform spread throughout Westminster on Monday morning, one senior Tory backbencher captured the mood by saying that “disbelief is the feeling amongst colleagues.”
Disbelief? Are they seriously surprised by this? What on earth did they expect? Can they really be that dim?
The answer to your last question Tof, is yes.
Dim. Arrogant. So used to getting things their way that they can’t ever envisage not getting things their way.
MPs are expected to put their careers above everything else and joining a dissident right-wing party instead of groveling in one’s waste products (a quote from a 1980s computer game called Starflight) is certainly a career-killing move, hence, disbelief.
Reform is “a dissident right-wing party?”
Sadly, it is not. Middle of the road possibly.
Let’s celebrate our pride in being British: our amazing culture, our unbreakable communities, our incredible heritage.
A statement like this, made in German by a German party, would be sufficient to be branded as arch-nazi by everyone commanding a public voice and to start initial investigations for extreme-right-wing-isms by the Federal Office for Protecting the Constitution (inland secret service). Things aren’t yet as bad on the UK but that’s where the journey is supposed to go to (Gove’s undermining of liberal democracy etc).
Sensible people would describe Reform as traditional centre-right party seeking to occupy the spot the Tories are supposed to be occupy. To career blobsters, that’s far more far right than anything should legally allowed to be. After all, the party is planning a thermageddon genocide of all of mankind by keeping to burn oil, coal and gas.
Stalking horse, pressure valve. I think Reform could be okay, but not under Tice, he’s not the right person, wrong on too many issues. He’s pro mRNA, pro “Covid” measures, pro Net Zero, not calling for peace in Russia v Ukraine so possibly a Neocon warmonger.
Similarly, Lee Anderson is wrong on many issues. And, if we’re being honest Farage.
Farage delivered Brexit, but on many issues he’s equally wrong headed.
I can’t say anything about the other topics, but Reform certainly calls for everything-Net-Zero to be scrapped.
Okay, happy to concede that point, if that is the case. But he was awful regards all things “Covid” and was very pro “vax”.
Someone believing the mRNA injections “might” be useful for the elderly and chronically ill, could be forgiven for being swept along by the all pervasive hysteria, but to suggest mandating, vaccine passports and ignoring the concept of “informed consent” or just “refusal for any reason” is unacceptable and unforgivable.
Yes times were tough in the first couple of years (at least), but some of us had the fortitude and insight to see this was all a massive con and betrayal by those in “charge”. We were betrayed by the people we should have been able to trust and rely on, and Tice and his ilk did not stand up and be counted, despite being offered a very powerful opportunity.
Tice is probably controlled opposition – sadly! Sadly because we need someone genuine, principled, committed and on the side of freedom, rights, truth, with integrity and morality.
The way Reform are polling, they have real potential, not in 1st past the post, but if more do what Lee Anderson has done!
Forcing young girls, who just want to dance, to have vaccines almost certain to mean increased still births, miscarriages, disabled children, infertility. Remember the vaccines still on emergency approval only. Revolting, disgusting.
RICHARD TICE, 19 JULY 2020.
Yes, I’ve heard Tice say that on a number of occasions
They do call for Net Zero to be scrapped. But to do that they will have an almighty battle on their hands against the huge Climate Industrial Complex. ——-I am all for this battle but it is going to be like Kursk on speed
Yes, except his excellent policy of “Net Zero Migration”.
Not their ‘net zero’ migration policy they don’t!
And the candidate they put up in the ‘Groomers of Young White Girls ‘R’ Us’ Rochdale by-election of all places, was a former Labour MP done for sending creepy messages to Young Girls.
Reform needs to up its game considerably and relegate Tice to a back seat behind Nigel.
I pretty much agree with you kev. On all of it.
Lukewarm as my support for Reform is (their net zero migration policy ‘one out, one in’ is ludicrous), if they manage to get even a small wrecking ball to knock the Uniparty skittle drones into disarray, that will be a start.
“Can they really be that dim?”
Oh yes indeed they can and are.
I have the feeling that career politicians feel that if they all swarm around the middle ground it will simply be a question of what bunch of wimps to vote for. They all want to sell the basic stuff like bread butter and milk, because they don’t seem to think the public want anything else. —-I can assure the silly Tories that if they think they are better off just being Labour Lite then they will have no identity anymore.
At last! Just what is needed, now come Nigel join in
And maybe even Andrew Brigden?!
Nigel’s doing a sterling job on GB News …. and I expect his priority is doing whatever he can to help get Trump back in the White House.
That’s great news! Now, Andrew Bridgen, you, too.
Bridgen won’t join Reform because Tice is so wrong on everything “Covid” related. Tice is wrong on a lot of things! So is Farage, sadly!
No, it is you who are wrong, apparently because you haven’t taken time to actually read the Reform policies on their website, or looked up any quotes from Richard Tice, like this one:
“Forcing young girls, who just want to dance, to have vaccines almost certain to mean increased still births, miscarriages, disabled children, infertility. Remember the vaccines still on emergency approval only. Revolting, disgusting.”
RICHARD TICE, 19 JULY 2020.
Lee was wasted in Sunak’s party because there was no place for him. He’s a conservative.
Stout fellow!
True, he was like a trumpet with a wah wah stuck in the end, now he can really let rip!
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/irish-voters-i-salute-you/
Laura Perrins rubbing the Irish establishments noses in their gruesome defeat over a revised Constitution.
Sometimes, just sometimes the plebs do the right thing.
Marvellous.
Now let’s have a referendum on immigration and net zero (yer right, more chance of walking on Mars!)
The problem is we had a referendum, and the blob have spent the last 6 years trying to dilute and destroy what the majority voted for.
We even have a second bercow!
Quite a few column inches (to use the old term) on GBN this lunchtime on that. Having been around for a while, the whole affair reminded me of the formation of the SDP in the early 1980s, when Labour broke apart.
Labour may well break apart again as George G is very keen to stand more candidates & could well take 20 or more seats from them.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/anti-semitic-londons-echoes-of-1930s-berlin/
Londonistan.
This is what you get when somebody with no allegiance to this country is allowed to become Mayor.
I don’t know how the establishment sleeps at night – traitors all.
There were no Arabs shouting anything in “1930s Berlin” and the Arabs currently shouting something in London aren’t burning books written by German communists and communism supporters and other beneficiaries or proponents of the Versailles treaty and the Weimar republic/ system it begat. This (the article) is nothing but another clumsy (very clumsy, actually, as the related events aren’t even superficially similar) to repurpose well-established anti-German stereotypes for supporting the present policy of the government of Israel.
Did we know this? I didn’t know this. Smells like appeasement again, it’s getting way too familiar a stench methinks;
”More than £117m of taxpayers’ money will be used to protect mosques, Muslim schools and community centres from hate attacks over the next four years.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said the money, which will be spent on measures including CCTV cameras, alarms and fencing, would give “reassurance and confidence to UK Muslims”. The announcement, which follows a £70m package for Jewish groups, comes in response to concerns that the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza is fuelling division in the UK.
The Government condemned a recent rise in reported anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hatred and ministers have made it clear they expect the police to fully investigate all hate crimes and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to bring perpetrators to justice.
Mr Cleverly said: “Anti-Muslim hatred has absolutely no place in our society. We will not let events in the Middle East be used as an excuse to justify abuse against British Muslims.
“The Prime Minister has made clear that we stand with Muslims in the UK. That is exactly why we have committed to this funding, giving reassurance and confidence to UK Muslims at a time when it is crucially needed.”
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/government-commits-more-117m-protect-28792057
Not that we need any further confirmation of who the Met police favour and give preferential treatment to. We all know who the perma-victims are. So does this mean we can expect zero ‘incidents’ perpetrated by a certain not insignificant section of society now that we’ve entered the ‘peaceful’ month-long Ramadan festival?
https://twitter.com/blonschki/status/1767134772155822437
Go Go Go ———–Thanks for your great contributions. I am going to have to create a new Twitter account to see all the links you post as my last one seems to have bitten the dust. —-cheers.
Cheers, Varmint.
It’s nice to be nice.
Are the front bench idiots doing anything to protect the rightful people of this country whose forefathers and mothers suffered, shed blood and died in numerous wars over centuries against would-be invaders and dictators to keep this country safe and free?
No, they would rather appease the izlamists by spending our taxes protecting jihadis who would like to murder us, & on idealogues who plot to outnumber us, sabotage our society by using democracy against us and turn the UK into the kind of 3rd world izlamic ****hole they came from.
Vile traitors sit in Westminster.
The Tories then have given up being right of centre and have morphed into just another hand wringing bunch of Liberal Progressive wimps. ——–What we do not want though is for Reform to become the rabble rouser party, we still need to make cohesive and sophisticated arguments. —-I say “we” because I now have no choice but to abandon the former conservatives known as Tories and vote for the only right of centre party now available.
QuoteLee Anderson Defects from Globalist Uniparty 1 to Intelligence Agency Outfit.
There, fixed it for you.
Are Reform becoming the GB News of Politics ? Tice backed the Jabs at one point & now word up is that Anderson did too ? + they don’t seem to back Bridgen !
Whoever vetted this chap, should be ashamed. He is not a benefit to anyone’s party. For the simple reason, he believes the covid
saved millions of lives.
I raised this & got a downtick for my trouble
I mentioned this a couple of days ago. For his position on the jibby’s he is suss.
That’s a belief he probably shares with the overwhelming majority of the population who got jabbed because they were told it was the right thing to do and who don’t want to admit – at least not publically – that all they really did was saddle themselves with an avoidable health risk for pharma industry profits and with the ultimate outcome that the covaxxes ceased to be bestselling product because everybody (almost) got tired of being pricked with needles and thus, restarted living in this germ-ridden world as if the pandemic of Corona madness had never occurred. It’s futile to demand perfection from people.
A competent leader uses the wise man, the brave man, the avaricious man and the stupid man. The wise man wants to distinguish himself, the brave man wants to prove his courage by fighting, the avaricious man seeks his own benefit and the stupid man doesn’t fear death.
[Sun Tsu, The Art of War]
Apparently the Party Grandees are planning to fight back by deploying Lord Dave of Greenshill Lobbying and the Fat Oaf on the campaign trail. If they can get the knives out of each other’s and Sunak’s back first, of course.
Now I agree that for some strange reason, the Fat Oaf does seem to appeal to many working class voters. But the Greenshill grifter ….. words fail me.
Do you mean Bunter ? The Booster blaring 80 Seat majority Chunt !!!
We seem to be gearing up to enforce a PR system onto the Westminster Uni Party, which is desperate to keep FPTP ….. with Reform snapping at the heels of the Not-a-Conservative-Party and Galloway gearing up to inflict some serious damage on Fabian-Labour.
Jolly Dee ….
That’s not really a good idea. PR systems cement the division of people instead of representing their unity and invariably lead to professional particians putting the interest of their party above everything else.
One of the reasons why the first world-war was terminated by a revolution in Germany is that particians of the largest party (the SPD) didn’t think, and very much rightly so, it wouldn’t be in the best interest of their own party if the war ended with a German victory or even just with amiable peace negotiations among the warring powers. This caused millions of people to get killed or be driven from their homes (there’s really only one world-war with 20 years of an uneasy armistice in between) but to this day, the SPD is a major, if not the major political force in whatever remains of German it currently controls.
From the standpoint of the SPD, this was absolutely the right strategy and the sacrifces fell mostly onto others.