Free speech 1 and free speech 2
The Society of Authors has been “lost” to cancel culture, members fear, after free speech rebels failed to oust the current chairman in a row over gender ideology.
It can be confusing trying to pick out who is for free speech and who is for cancel culture in this dispute. Joanne Harris was exercising her free speech when she used the violent attack on Salman Rushdie to sneer at JK Rowling, but critics see her sneering as an abuse of her role as chairman.
The UK’s largest writers’ union has faced an internal revolt over claims it has not properly defended gender-critical authors from being “cancelled” if they do not agree with prevailing opinions.
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Writers including Julie Bindel and Amanda Craig brought a motion at its annual general meeting on Thursday night, which sought to have Harris removed as president. They brought another that aimed to introduce “robust” measures to protect free speech.
Both were voted down. The smelly little orthodoxy won big.
They’re not even “prevailing opinions,” not in the population at large. It’s the same backwardness as the rest of the misbegotten nonsense. The only reason it has even a veneer of being “prevailing,” is the successful quashing of any discussion, thus leaving the minority in positions of control. Tyranny of the minority.
Once again, there is a strong element of self-fulfilling prophecy involved. One of the few things I remember from my rusty bachelor’s degree in media studies is the Spiral of Silence: People who think they’re in a minority (whether they are in fact in a minority or not) tend to self-censor for fear of embarrassment or ridicule, making themselves unpopular, social isolation etc. But precisely by failing to speak out they’re making their own views seem even more “fringe”, thus leading to even more self-censorship etc. Often enough, of course, their views might not be “fringe” at all (or a lot less so than they imagine), but by keeping their opinions to themselves they are preventing themselves from ever finding out.
There’s a reason why the first lesson from Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny was “don’t obey in advance”. If there is ever a “right” time to take a clear, bold stance, it’s precisely before the situation becomes intolerable, while speaking out only requires a little bit of courage, while it only uncomfortable. Because by the time the situation does become intolerable it’s already too late.