Keep quiet or face arrest

Spectator, The, May 11, 2002 by Hitchens, Peter

Imagine the effect that such a law would have. If condemnation of an action is deemed to be insulting to anyone who does that action, then almost all absolute morality is outlawed. Those who write about such issues, as I do, often receive censorious letters claiming that our articles have insulted the writer. No matter that we have never heard of this individual and have made a general statement about unmarried mothers, employment quotas, homosexuality or whatever it is. These sensitive people have all taken it personally. This conveniently means that they do not have to argue their case. It also means that a legitimate opinion about a type of behaviour is magically transmuted into so-called hate-speech, so offensive to certain persons that it is likely to provoke them to fury. The implication is that it ought not to have been said or written. Such attitudes are already in power on most British university campuses, where the sexual-liberation lobby has almost completely silenced its opponents and where student-union officials have been known to unplug the microphones of speakers who transgress their speech codes.

Did you really think that freedom and democracy would be dismantled by people who openly declared that they wanted censorship and tyranny? The new totalitarianism comes robed in righteous outrage, but it still holds a gag in its hand.

Peter Hitchens is a columnist for the Mail on Sunday.