Freedom to disagree comes at a high cost
Not so long ago we celebrated diverse opinions and belief systems, but in the trigger age of outrage, it seems silencing robust discussion is the new norm, with nothing and no one held sacred anymore, writes Caroline Marcus.
According to Israel Folau, as an atheist Jew (yes, it’s a thing), I’m going straight to hell.
Once there, I’ll find myself shvitzing alongside my fellow sinners — boozers, folk who’ve done the deed before marriage, and gays among them.
Sounds like quite the party, other than the being tortured for eternity bit.
See, I can mock Izzy’s religion because that’s the beauty of free speech, at least as we currently know it. But were I to ridicule a certain other faith, the response may be somewhat less tolerant.
Just ask the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists or Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was shot dead in 2004 after producing a film criticising the treatment of women in Islam.
RELATED: Who cares what a footy player thinks?
The fact is, there are certain subjects that have become too politically explosive to broach in public and devout Christian beliefs are increasingly among those that. Sure, it may not cost you your life (at least in a pluralistic democracy like Australia), but it can threaten your livelihood.
Wallabies fullback Folau is now in the fight of his career, facing a code of conduct hearing again and a possible sacking for merely quoting his holy book in an Instagram post last month.
Most Australians would see Rugby Australia as being pathetically woke in all of this; in an online poll by The Weekend Australian, almost 90 per cent of respondents said the 30-year-old should not have his contract ripped up.
RELATED: We need offensive opinions more than we realise
There are those particularly in the LGBTIQ community who may well have found what Folau wrote offensive, but he was certainly not abusing or harassing anyone, nor was he inciting violence towards any particular group. And as gay activist Dawn Grace-Cohen argues so eloquently, he shouldn’t lose his job just for having a different opinion.
“Marriage equality activists won over Australians not by silencing the opposition but by winning the argument,” Grace-Cohen recently wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Resorting to bully tactics now against people who oppose us betrays that victory.”
Of course, there were people back then who did try to silence proponents of traditional marriage, such as the 18-year-old Christian contractor fired by a children’s entertainment company in 2017 for posting on her Facebook that “it’s OK to say no.”
More recently, we’ve seen other concerning attacks on free speech as political incorrectness finds itself in the crosshairs in Australia and around the world.
RELATED: Dame Edna ‘sacks’ controversial manager Barry Humphries
Last month, comic legend Barry Humphries had his name stripped from a Melbourne International Comedy Festival award — the Barry — for calling transgenderism “a fashion.”
“How many different kinds of lavatory can you have?” Humphries riffled in an interview with Britain’s Spectator magazine. “And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers.”
He also described demands for transphobia to be treated as a form of assault as “terrible ratbaggery”.
Sure, there are bound to have been some trans people who would have been offended by such comments, but there’d be very few genuinely funny comedians left if we whitewashed all those whose routines cause offence.
Meantime, Silicon Valley went on a rabid banning spree last Thursday, with Facebook and Instagram deplatforming several far-right figures, including Paul Joseph Watson and Milo Yiannopoulos.
You may not have much time for these characters, but it’s the first step in a disturbing shift towards the broader censorship of more mainstream voices who may not conform with “acceptable” world views.
RELATED: Yiannopoulos is entitled to his views like everybody else
Take actor James Woods, one of the few Hollywood stars who identifies as a conservative, who was locked out of his Twitter account for “abusive behaviour” after paraphrasing US poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson by writing “‘If you try to kill the King, you best not miss’ #HangThemAll”, an apparent response to the Mueller report.
Even US President Donald Trump weighed in, tweeting: “How can it be possible that James Woods (and many others), a strong but responsible Conservative Voice, is banned from Twitter? Social Media & Fake News Media, together with their partner, the Democrat Party, have no idea the problems they are causing for themselves.”
It may only be a matter of time before the president finds himself on the digital blacklist.
But it’s not just people with public profiles who are being punished for their thoughtcrimes.
Earlier this year, British man Harry Miller was interviewed by Humberside Police after posting a number of allegedly “transphobic” tweets, including a limerick.
RELATED: Nobody should be intimidated into silence. Ever
“[The policeman] said even though I had committed no crime he needed to check my thinking,” Mr Miller said.
It remains to be seen what will happen with Folau, although it seems unlikely he will return to play for the national team either way.
The revelation in the Sunday Telegraph that he rejected a $1 million peace offering shows Folau is willing to put up a fight for his faith.
One thing’s for sure; free speech has become very costly indeed.
Caroline Marcus is a journalist with Sky News. @carolinemarcus
We’re replacing the kangaroo with this? What a waste of $10m
What happens when you get a self-serving mining billionaire whose fortune depends on the Chinese Communist Party to help rebrand Australia? A national symbol that looks like a COVID-19 cell, writes Miranda Devine.
Sorry for the scare campaign, the planet is fine
When a climate activist apologised for how environmentalists had misled the public over climate change threats, the fearmongers were not happy, especially when Greta is upping her fight, writes Miranda Devine.