The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    Re: A refreshing change; a Celeb talks sense on Free Speech Archived Message

    Posted by dovetailjoint on May 4, 2019, 11:53 am, in reply to "A refreshing change; a Celeb talks sense on Free Speech"

    What's terrifying is that once upon a time, the 'left' and 'liberals' used to be passionate defenders of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Not so today. Today much of the 'left' are the ones actually arguing for the opposite, for proscribing 'speech crimes' of various kinds. This is a fundamental and disturbing change that's difficult to explain. In this respect the 'left' has become a kind of mirror image of the coservative right and their dogmas.

    In the United States from the late sixties higher education was skilfully targetted and 'steered' away from 'radicalisation' and towards 'conformity.' This happened through the use of funding, and supporting areas of study that focused on 'gender' and 'identity' rather than deep-rooted economic inequality.

    The 'progressives' could be fooled into thinking that society was... 'progressing' because reforms were introduced that specifically aimed at various aspects of identity and gender norms that were obviously no longer valid and needed to be examined and changed. However, these reforms didn't alter the fundamental economic and power relationships in society, the massive structural inequalities of wealth and opportunities. In fact, paradoxically, whilst the 'left' embraced identity and gender politics, the fundamental inequalities were getting far, far, worse.

    These 'liberal' changes and reforms linked to identity and gender norms and the magic of digital tech, gave the false impression that society was moving forward, was progressing, and left progressives simply love... progress; whilst in reality the social and economic structure was moving in the opposite direction, back towards the 19th century and back towards the Middle Ages with the peasants living outside the walls of the castle with the drawbridge pulled firmly up once more.

    Message Thread: