The Free Speech Crisis isn’t a Figment of Telegraph Readers’ Imaginations
I was interviewed by Andrew Doyle for his Free Speech Nation podcast last week and it’s just been released on YouTube. We talked about a wide range of issues, from why the long march through the institutions by the woke left has continued uninterrupted in spite of Labour losing the last four General Elections to whether Owen Jones will shortly be asking for the Free Speech Union’s help.
But we began by discussing the claim, still made to this day, that the free speech crisis isn’t real. All that’s happened in the last few years, according to this critique, is that a bunch of male, pale and stale conservatives are getting their much-deserved comeuppance.
You can watch the full, one-hour conversation on YouTube here.
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Watched it. So the Guardian did a hit job on Toby for 8 (e-i-g-h-t as they say on the football scores) consecutive days when he set up his Free Speech Union? Well at least we know now that the Groan are anti-free speech (and maybe Times muppets too). All very well for them to say there isn’t a problem when they have the police acting as their “paramilitary wing”. Still, we were interviewed by a Guardian journalist at a pro-life prayer vigil outside a medical facility for destroying children a few years back. And guess what? People are now banned from “silent prayer” outside this facility (so a thought crime). Whatever one’s views on life issues, even the Guardian can see that this might constitute a free speech issue. And these people knew this when they went for Toby. Then there is “gender critical feminists”. There are the scientists who do not dare to question Darwinism, knowing it will damage their career. There are of course people who have had problems after criticising Marxist campaign group Black Lives Matter. There are the doctors and medical scientists who have been told that evidence based science that contradicts public health messaging must… Read more »
I believe that if a person believes that the insertion of a man’s penis into another man’s anus is wrong they should be allowed to say so. It’s not ‘hate speech’ – we all have tendencies, temptations, and we all sin. But even before I ‘came out’ as a Christian, I believed that that was wrong on any level. In my 20s and 30s I felt it was all fine, but when I thought more about it later, it didn’t make sense. I do not agree with Islam on this, ie that we should stone people who have chosen to do this, and we do of course need to look very hard at ourselves before we pour judgement on others, but we should be allowed to say that we feel it wrong, as I think most of us would be happy to explain why.
I agree with a lot Hugh says here. I also feel that those protesting against abortion (quietly, as Hugh did) should, in a supposedly free country, be allowed to. And I speak as one who has had an abortion. But that doesn’t make it right.
The essence of homosexuality distilled into it’s rawest form….thank you Deborah. Here was me thinking it was all about listening to ABBA and cutting each others hair.
Seriously though; I probably disagree 100% with Hugh on the abortion issue, but have read his many comment here on it with interest and an open mind. No way should he be thought lesser of for holding those views, nor yourself for the thoughts expressed above.
As has been very obvious for several years, it is those who vehemently describe themselves as tolerant, (and demand it ferociously from others), who have absolutely no ability to dispense the virtue.
I believe that if a person believes that the insertion of a man’s penis into another man’s anus is wrong they should be allowed to say so. It’s not ‘hate speech’ – we all have tendencies, temptations, and we all sin.
If you look at the bible, it tells people that they shouldn’t be doing this, not that they should do something specific with people who disregard this commandment. Other contemporary cultures had different views of this, eg, Thucydides describes some political conflict in Athens partially fuelled by an unsuccessful effort of one of the involved politicians to become the lover of another involved politician in a few sentences in passing without attaching any significance to this beyond pointing out that jealousy might well have been a factor there.
In the end, what people do with their own bodies really ought to be their business for as long as they don’t demand that everybody must pay attention to this and publically celebrate them for it.
Well done for saying it. I can’t really say that I agree that men having sex with each other is wrong, I’m not sure in this act who is being wronged? But I don’t think it’s something society should actively encourage, as ours does.
When I was younger I would have described myself as left leaning liberal on social issues and this extended to my position on abortion. Not so now. Now I regard the normalisation of this frankly barbaric act it as (another) attack on the human race. I don’t think it should be banned outright and there may be circumstances where it’s appropriate. But I think the decision should be a solemn one taken only in exceptional circumstances. I’m also supportive of the 2nd amendment and wish we the UK hadn’t been disarmed.
Well done, The New World Order; you’ve turned me into a small c conservative!
And the homosexual ‘Community’ and their supporters do not seem to understand that without the invention of IVF their preferred methods of sexual intercourse would have led to the extinction of the human race! And then, they think it’s perfectly OK to demand the right to have children. Oh, the irony!!
Shock, horror – 2 down ticks for explaining biology
Talking of the Telegraph, someone here BTL (can’t recall the name) was writing that his counter-narrative comments BTL at telegraph.co.uk were being removed, without his being informed. He found that they were visible when he was logged in, but that when the same comments section was viewed anonymously, they were absent.
Not the first time I have heard this.
Can anyone confirm?
Good work, Toby. Haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but keep at it!
As a wise person once said, if you have no enemies, you’re not doing anything worthwhile!
Good to know MAK…..
Everybody at my work hated me, none of my neighbours like me, and after 59 years on the planet I have the sum total of 3 mates, (and I’m not even sure about them!).
On the basis of what you have written I must be saving humanity all by myself. 🙂
I have been haemorrhaging friends too, some of incredibly long standing for speaking up about the last few years. Others we have just decided that a discussion in which we agree to disagree is no challenge to our friendship as we’ve never agreed on everything! Those are the friends I cherish.
If “the penny is beginning to drop” it shows the politicians in an even worse light than I had ever thought possible.
Yep. Nothing to see here. It’s all just about punishing people for claiming that it’s good that killing ticks is legal, for making disparaging statements about Ramadan and for quoting Asterix. All crimes against humanity which urgently need to be addressed to protect those vulnerable to this from exposure to humor they don’t want to understand or flagrant disregard for something that’s very dear to them.
Telling someone who believes the earth to be flat that this isn’t the case may be legal. But it’s certainly harmful, as the notion that, instead of standing on a stable, flat surface, they’re clinging to a rotating ball of stone whirling through a deathly void at an enormous speed just because of an invisible mystery force called gravity would cause them very severe distress. After all, they could fall off at any moment by merest chance should this mystery force ever cease to function!