Recently in Australia, the internet was set on fire by outraged social justice warriors when Sonic Kruger, a TV personality made comments regarding Muslim immigration and the ethics of LGBT scholarships.
Personally I think she is on the right track, although she may have gone a bit too far, especially with the comments regarding Muslim immigration. My opinion of her comments and the comments themselves even are largely irrelevant however. What is concerning, but not surprising is the absolute furor that Sonia was met with. Calling her a bigot, a homophobe, demanding that she be fired as a television presenter, and worse.
This is the world that the politically correct cult of social progressiveness has us living in. A world where free speech is championed, so long as it doesn’t conflict with the dominant narrative. Someone makes a rather tame comment simply questioning whether a scholarship targeting children’s sexuality is based on merit, and rather than debate statement like a rational person would, the response is to immediately label her a bigot and a homophobe. She doesn’t completely agree with our cause? She must be hateful and evil. It’s ironic the intensity of abuse she received for such a moderate comment from people labeling her as ‘hateful’
But this is representative of a deep problem within the mainstream discussion of political issues in western society. Free speech is championed only notionally. Making any statement against the generally accepted narrative is labelled as hateful and silenced. In Australia there are laws explicitly labeling any statement that could be considered offensive as a criminal offence.
It is considered acceptable to lash out at the hiring of a movie star because she is Israeli, but not acceptable to consider whether we should be cautious in allowing immigration of peoples from areas that are well documented to be exporting terrorists. Is acceptable to decry the traditional view of gender as “hetero normative” and harmful, but not to question whether children as young as ten years old should be encouraged to question their sexuality and gender.
For better or worse, a public vote is to be held soon in Australia, where we will be deciding on whether the definition of marriage should be redefined to allow same sex couples to marry. Already there are statements labeling any comment by the “no” campaign as hateful, and therefore illegal under the previously stated law.
Clearly this is a perversion of not only democracy, but the idea of free speech. If we are to move our society forward, we must be able to openly debate each issue, rather than silencing the opposition. Otherwise how are we to disseminate and communicate the facts and views of the population, so as to make an informed decision? Remember the age old saying “Use it or lose it”. If we stand by and allow people to be silenced, then bit by bit we will watch our freedom of expression erode to nothing, and the rabid and vocal minority will be allowed to dictate public discourse.