It’s a natural part of growing up to rebel. I still cringe when I remember the way I tried to dress like a rapper in my teens (in the end I settled for rock, which is still the case now) and it’s inevitable that that stage of life involves supporting dumb ideas and telling the older generation just how wrong they are. It’s normal, it’s character-forming in the long term and to some extent, it’s healthy. What’s not healthy is the increasing psyche in western society that believes ideological dissent should not be engaged, debated or even reprimanded, but shouted down and, if necessary, forcefully removed.
It’s occurring with unnerving regularity. Tommy Robinson’s appearance at the Oxford Union was met in some quarters not by articulate objection, academic debate or frank dialogue on the rights or wrongs of it, but by a picket line that were determined to literally shout over Tommy during his engaging two hour talk. Nigel Farage was assaulted by a mob in a Kent pub this weekend as he enjoyed a meal with his family. His two children where terrorised by the mob – who lied that they were attending a party on the premises – as members of the rabble jumped on their car to express their superior morality to the views of the children’s father. In Australia, students stopped a lecture on campus by entering the room and yelling down the speaker, before one protester shouted “anyone here is support Israel.” It’s a disturbing trend in Europe, Australasia and North America to engage in militant “anti-Israel” politics. As if Jewish people hadn’t suffered enough in recent generations, they are now under increasing hostility in the west.
These aren’t isolated incidents, nor are they headline-grabbing, shocking attacks on democracy that are quickly tackled by police. They are regular events committed by people who believe it’s justified. In the name of “anti-fascism” (a term almost always used by people who could never, ever give you a sensible, educated definition of “fascist”) these far-left and liberal groups commit some of the most ‘fascist’ acts that modern society can witness.
The justification works like this:
- 1) I’m an anti-facist or a left winger, pro-Palestine or feminist. What I believe is right.
- 2) Since I’m right and anti-fascist,anyone who disagrees must therefore be wrong, or anti-fascist, pro-Israel or hate women.
- 3) Fascism, or or being wrong, or hating women is bad.
- 4) Since the opposition is bad, it’s OK to silence or attack them.
..and that’s it. It really is that simple to find a reason to be unpleasant.
Of course, not everyone follows this twisted trail of logic, but those who do so do it with fervor, delighting in the cheap moral excuse to behave like violent thugs or nasty little dictators.It should be no surprise to notice how desperate for recognition and a false sense of power some of them strive for, but there’s a bigger risk at stake. The twisted way of thinking we just observed leads us to look at our enemy as less than us. Essentially they become lower class of life and as Philip Zimbardo has shown, this road of thinking can lead to truly evil crimes against humanity.
But it’s wrong. It’s wrong morally, logically and ethically. The rules governing free speech are established in common law and serve us well. As I’ve already discussed, there are sound academic and logical reasons for doing the exact opposite to our political rivals.
Are there ever any sound reasons for rising up against another section of society? Of course the are,but here’s a hint – if your fight against “fascists” or any other group leads you to a place where you are jumping on a car with two terrified children inside, making up as many slurs as you can to justify an act of censorship or yelling at a class of students that they “support Israel” for attending a lecture, then you’ve probably lost your moral compass on your route to the high ground.
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