Clarissa Bye: Cancel culture survey shows growing fragmentation of society

Are you a ‘male ally’ who needs to be educated about privilege? The growing indoctrination of our culture with woke training is fragmenting our society, writes Clarissa Bye.

You’re either with us or against us.

Cancel culture has claimed another victim — friendships across the social and political divide.

According to fascinating new social research, Australians are changing our views about accepting our fellow citizens.

It used to be that “tolerance” meant accepting other people, regardless of their views or beliefs. But now it has become more likely Australians won’t accept others who don’t hold similar views.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle picked up this seismic change in a Mainstreet Insights report called “Cancel culture and acceptance in Australia – Exploring Australians’ acceptance of others and their world view.”

Scene from the classic comedy Faulty Towers, where “Don’t Mention The War” episodes were removed from a BBC-owned streaming service because they “contained racial slurs”.

The change has happened rapidly. In 2020, 50 per cent of those surveyed said they agreed with the statement that you accept an individual, regardless of their views.

Now, the figure has dropped to 38 per cent. And for teenagers and 20-somethings (Generation Z), the idea of acceptance of an individual also “involves advocating for their practice or world view”.

British author J K Rowling has been subjected to cancel culture, including not being invited to movie reunions over her successful Harry Potter series, over her views on biological women. Picture: Wall to Wall Media Ltd

“It seems that now Australians are saying, at least a majority of the younger generation are saying, that acceptance has to be more than just accepting the individual, it has to be in some way them championing it, participating in or advocating for their particular world view, practise or position, which is a whole new definition of tolerance,” McCrindle says.

“If you’re not onside with someone’s world view, or not going in to bat or be supportive of their views, you won’t be accepted.”

He thinks we’ve become more stratified politically.

“We don’t as easily just reach across the aisle anymore. We are more polarised, it is much more the US and them dynamic.

“It’s very tribal but this is not a game of footy we’re talking about. Accepting people for who they are is foundational to our society.”

Mark McCrindle, who authored the report: “Accepting people for who they are is foundational to our society.”

The increasing use of the word “ally” illustrates the shift he says: “Ally is more than accepting or holding a view, but championing it.”

The shift can be seen in workplaces, schools and organisations hosting special calendar celebration days, with badges and coloured shirts — because “you need to do more than just accept the individual and the difference”.

The other day I asked my husband if he’s been my “male ally”.

“What on earth are you talking about?” he replied.

I told him about a story I’d seen from Channel 9 to mark International Women’s Day, which said that men needed to become “male allies” of women and they should “prepare to be uncomfortable” and educate themselves about their ‘“privileges and biases”.

Books by Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, including On Beyond Zebra! and And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, are among six by the famed children's book author that will no longer be printed due to accusations of racist and insensitive imagery. Picture: Getty Images

He laughed in my face.

I think I’ll have to send him off to diversity boot camp. Especially now they have bonus classes in “How To Be A Good Ally”.

Sydney University’s starter pack for its LGBTIQ ally network includes signing a pledge, just like a good little Girl Guide, with a promise that you will wear “my ally logo pin and display the Ally Network sticker”.

My electricity bill might have hit four digits but Energy Australia runs Opera House events on being a “good trans ally”, where people are told that more needs to be done than just “practising pronouns”.

During National Refugee Week this year, the Australian Red Cross put out its helpful guide called “10 ways to be an ally”, with the unsurprising tip that they want more donations.

Accessible Arts (a peak disability and art organisation based in Sydney) charges people $95 for its “How To Be a Good Ally” workshops where you can be told about your “unconscious bias and ableism”.

Old episode of TV personality Michael Parkinson (L) interviews Prime Minister Bob Hawke and actor Max Gillies. The ABC has released several episodes with “trigger warnings” about the content.

And the NSW Anti-Racism Working Group, set up by the NSW Local Government Multicultural Network, takes it further.

They’ve discovered the uber ally — someone they call an “accomplice”.The metaphor about the Allies and the enemies and world war hits another level with this.

Except they are totally mangling the English language to pretend the word “accomplice” has some second meaning apart from ... partner in crime. But they are deadset serious.

Their version means an even more fanatical ally. “… a role beyond an ally in support of minority groups” their policy states. “It goes beyond being a listener and advocate.”

The anti-racists cite Wollongong University lecturer, Summer May Finlay, who argues that “unlike allies, who often step away when things get tough, accomplices stay” and that accomplices always promote Indigenous voices “rather than their own”.

The whole thing is ludicrous. But people are wising up to the woke warriors and their accomplices.

Actor Chris Lilley as Jonah From Tonga from the popular ABC-TV series, with Netflix now quietly removing several episodes.

Come to think of it, the word accomplice is probably a Freudian slip on their part but, in any event, it’s definitely a deliberate tool.

A network of activists from the US, who run a website called Beautiful Trouble, have a “Spectrum of Allies” tool, teaching how to categorise people in pie charts — in order to manipulate opinion.

“Locate allies and opponents along a spectrum from active opposition to active allies in order to increase your own support, as well as shift support out from under your opponent,” it instructs.

No thanks.

Making friends the old-fashioned way and not checking their level of privilege or social beliefs, or how they can be put in service to social justice dogma, is surely a better foundation stone for a happy community.

Originally published as Clarissa Bye: Cancel culture survey shows growing fragmentation of society