For a mob who spend so much time piously patting themselves on the back for their own assumed moral superiority, and blithering about “kindness” and “tolerance”, nobody does unhinged, gibbering hate quite like the left.
No one can have an opinion contrary to the left without being screamed at – and worse. Leftist mobs not only physically attack those they disagree with, they ruin their careers and seek out and destroy their families. Leftists who self-righteously blither about “love” and “welcoming” openly compile lists of those whom they wish banished and “cancelled”.
The desire to hurt people who express contrary views (typically by demanding that they should be sacked or removed from positions or stripped of titles and honours) is immoral, hypocritical and represents a misunderstanding of the complexity of human character.
The last decade has witnessed an increasing polarisation of political and social ideology, broadly in line with the left and right divide. Never have we seen unpopular words attract such high levels of hostility.
Even the “Red Scare” and McCarthyism of the 1950s pale into insignificance to the Woke Mobs. If nothing else, the Red Scaremongers at least had some justification. All the same, McCarthyism was rightly condemned and abandoned.
Mob vigilantism is now a standard strategy for many left-leaning activists to deal with people who have opposing views. The sanctimony associated with pursuing self-declared noble causes regrettably often shuts down the cognitive side of the brain where the principle against harming others is anchored.
Even former US president Barack Obama recently urged the “callout woke” crowd to become less judgmental.
Careful, Barry: you’ll be next. As J K Rowling’s example shows, today’s Righteously Woke paragon is tomorrow’s “transphobic Nazi”.
Even more disturbing than typecasting people on the basis of their views or censoring them is the now fashionable obsession to want to damage people who express contrary views. Thus, we often hear loud calls for people to be sacked or stripped of entitlements if they dare voice unpopular views. Margaret Court, Israel Folau and J K Rowling are some of many recent examples. Calls for deprivations to be imposed on such people violate the most basic norms of human civility.
The main reason such aberrations as McCarthyism were condemned and abandoned was because they were gross abuses of the rule of law.
In a society governed by the rule of law, it is repugnant to seek to punish others for their views beyond the operation of the law. People work hard and long to establish careers, businesses and reputations. In some situations they deserve to have these interests diminished or taken from them. But, given the centrality of these interests to human flourishing, they can only be set back by the operation of legal standards.
Calls for people to be deprived of any interests or entitlements outside the legal process on the basis of supposedly inappropriate comments is nothing other than the expression of unhinged anger that in nearly all cases is more harmful than the viewpoint being expressed.
The Australian
In a word: “hate”.
Leftist Cancel Culture mobs are the very epitome of the “hate speech” they claim to condemn.
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