But you know and I know an awful lot of people, including elected officials, educators and journalists, who wish this could happen here, will do what they can to see that it does happen here, and regard themselves as enlightened and virtuous for believing this.
[Aside: I first (and last) heard that Mothers of Invention riff when I was a freshman in college. I made me laugh then, and it just made me laugh now. Yes, I am looking for things that will make me laugh.]
Sam Melia is an activist who was recenly sentenced to two years in prison for making and distributing offensive stickers, including thos saying,
- “It’s OK to be White”
- “White Lives Matter”
- “Love your Nation”
- “Stop Anti-White Rape Gangs”
- “Stop mass immigration”
- “Reject white guilt”
- “They seek conquest, not asylum”
Other stickers are unquestionably racist or anti-Semitic. One asked: “Why are Jews censoring free speech?,” for example. He’s a member of neo-fascist Patriotic Alternative, and is clearly an asshole, distributing printable stickers and encouraged his followers to download them and sick them them up in public places. In January, at Leeds Crown Court, Melia was found guilty of distributing material “intended to stir up racial hatred” and “encouraging racially aggravated criminal damage,” though there was no such damage. Last week he received his sentence of two years in jail, and British progressives are just thrilled about it.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says that when Melia was arrested in April 2021, police “found in his wallet” stickers that expressed “views of a nationalist nature.” When police searched Melia’s home, they “discovered a book by Oswald Mosley” and other evidence “of Melia’s ideology.” Yes, in Great Britain, home of the Magna Carta, Locke and W.S. Gilbert, you can now be imprisoned for what you believe and what opinions you express.
Thanks to the First Amendment, the U.S. has been spared that step into totalitarianism so far, but the double standards applied to the January 6 morons and the George Floyd marauders show that the potential for erosion is strong.
British political writer Brendan O’Neill spends more time explaining what’s wrong with Melia’s persecution than he should have to, but he finishes his critique strongly:
“We need to trust ourselves more to confront hateful thinking and to ensure our communities are safe for everyone, rather than inviting officialdom to restrict and punish ideas we don’t like. Censorship both expands the state’s jurisdiction over the individual’s mind and weakens social solidarity by discouraging the public from directly confronting bigotry in preference for asking the government to cover our eyes and ears. The impact this has on the free society is devastating.
Even some liberal campaigners might feel uncomfortable defending the free-speech rights of a bigot like Melia. They need to get over themselves. As the American essayist HL Mencken said: ‘The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.’
And that is exactly why our aspiring censors—in the Congress, in the White House, in the news media, in universities, in DA offices—need to be stopped now. Immediately. This year.
Ethics Alarms 
Why is it that the only people willing to stand up to tyranny in Britain are fascists? Tommy Robinson was the only one willing to speak out about the Pakistani kidnapping and sex-slave industry in Britain (officially called ‘Asian grooming gangs’). When I ran the numbers on the GOVERNMENT report, it stated that 1700 young ,white teen girls were abducted and used as sex slaves in the city of Rotheram by Muslims. Statistically, Rotherham should only have about 6000 girls in that age range. Now, this abuse took part over several years, but the girls were often held in slavery over several years and the report said they could only document 1700, it could be several times more. It was documented that police would return girls who escaped the sex slavery back to the Muslim captors instead of their parents. Why did no one else speak up? Remember, during the trial of some of the ‘grooming gang’ perpetrators, Tommy Robinson was arrested for filming the courthouse from down the street. Only BBC state media was allowed to report on it, by court order. Once arrested, the media was forbidden to report on Robinson’s arrest, the charges, or the case.
So, is it just a coincidence that only fascists are willing to stand up to the British censorship and tyranny? Is it that only fascists are brave enough to do it? Or is it that maybe they aren’t fascists at all, but we are just being told they are fascists so we won’t support them? I don’t actually know, but I find it an interesting coincidence that every single person willing to stand up against censorship in Britain happens to be a documented (by the government) fascist, Count Dankula included.
>> Why is it that the only people willing to stand up to tyranny
>> in Britain are fascists?
I’m not convinced that’s quite correct, but I see what you mean. For the record, please note that the late English philosopher Roger Scruton wrote a novel about the grooming gangs. I’ve not read it, but it’s hard to avoid noticing that it exists. It’s called _The disappeared_. Wikipedia even has an entry on it.
But Scruton is a symptom of something. He noted that he ruined his academic career when the first edition of his book _Fools, frauds, and firebrands_ came out. >> So, is it just a coincidence that only fascists are willing to
>> stand up to the British censorship and tyranny? Is it that only
>> fascists are brave enough to do it? Or is it that maybe they
>> aren’t fascists at all, but we are just being told they are
>> fascists so we won’t support them?
I can’t really engage your question because I live in the USA where things are considerably different because of the Bill of Rights and our more decentralized social system. The term “fascist” was criticized as far back as George Orwell’s time. He noted it had been emptied of content and was simply applied to anything the author didn’t like. More generally, you are onto something–cowardice seems to be increasing because of cancel culture and the way that large bureaucratic entities are weaponized against people who speak up and irritate the powers that be. Somewhere online there is a longform discussion between Bret Weinstein and Steve Patterson (I’m not familiar with Mr. Patterson) in which Bret eventually asserts that academia now selects for cowardice. I only noticed it because of a pointer from Prof. Arnold Kling
https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/bret-weinstein-and-steve-patterson
If you can make it to the interview on youtube, cowardice comes up at the 2 hour 50 minute mark. I’m having trouble inserting a link, but you can find the longform interview from Kling’s post.
= – = – = – =
Some years ago when the talented polemicist Kevin Willamson was still writing for National Review he had a nice essay entitled “Watch what you say. Other people are.” Williamson is the person who was hired and then fired again by _The Atlantic_ within 24 hours. The story is online. Just like Razib Khan was hired and then fired again by the New York TImes as a science writer. The range of publicly permissible opinion has been narrowed, or perhaps the Overton Window has been shifted leftward.
It’s just too easy to have your career ruined by saying the wrong thing. It has compromised all the “epistemic institutions,” according to Bret Weinstein. Thanks for reading. charles w abbottrochester NY
Roger Scruton wrote a novel on the grooming gangs.
= – = – = – =
But generally speaking you are onto something.
(I wrote a longer comment but It was eaten by the WordPress software. That’s my own fault–my best practice is to edit comments in a different system and only paste them in at the last minute.)
The range of acceptable public opinion has been narrowed, or perhaps the Overton Window has shifted leftward. One way this is down is by calling people fascist if they say something that the people in charge find offensive.
= – = – = - =
In terms of the psychology of personality, I wonder if somehow only “agreeable” people are allowed to get their views aired now. Not all “disagreeable” persons are fascists, but there is an overlap. When I speak of “disagreeable-ness” I am referring to t that personality trait within the Five Factor Personality Model which uses the mnemonic OCEAN for short.
Prof. Arnold Kling has a pointer to a long conversation between Bret Weinstein and Steve Patterson. 2 hours and 50 minutes in, Weinstein hypothesizes that academia now selects for cowardice.
You can find it from here.
https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/bret-weinstein-and-steve-patterson
thanks for reading
charles w abbott
rochester NY
Not eaten, Charles! Just inexplicably sent to spam: it’s an honor, really. I rescued it. It’s up. I’m sorry.