Nick Cohen is one of those writers whom I have absolute respect for, even when what he says is something I might not agree with. I respect him because his book ‘What’s Left?’ exposed to me the revolting nature of the anti-West Trot Left and how well known so called ‘anti war’ groups like the Stop The War Coalition were dominated by hard leftists, Islamists and those who get a hard on for authoritarian dictators. It was a pivotal book for me as it was the final kick I needed to get in order to see that the liberal left, who I’d been convinced were mostly ‘nice guys’ were too often in league with the sort of people who would quite happily see me dead.

Now Mr Cohen has written a piece for the Observer that I applaud almost as much as I applaud his ’What’s Left’ book. Mr Cohen has asked the question: ‘Shouldn’t progressives be in favour of people speaking their minds?’ What Mr Cohen has found is that the left which would once have stood by an employee through thick and thin in a conflict with an employer, now sides with woke bosses to oppress workers who express views that the woke don’t like. He said that ‘the bossy left has now become the bosses left’.

Writing about the issue of transgenderism and the recent report into whether or not trans women should be permitted to compete against natal women and girls Mr Cohen said that there was an atmosphere of fear surrounding the trans issue and making any criticism, even scientifically based criticism of the trans movement difficult.

Mr Cohen said:

Last week, an inquiry for the UK’s sports councils described how athletes and administrators had been reduced to “swearing, shouting, crying and anxiety” by the demand that they admit trans competitors with the physical advantages that male puberty confers to women’s sports.

They thought that fair and safe competition would be impossible but “were afraid to say in public what they privately believed”. The researchers spoke of athletes who “had been threatened with sanction or disciplinary action if they spoke out”. Many were with sporting agencies that adopted leftish positions and “felt they had no option but to remain silent in order to keep their job”. What kind of twisted progressive politics leaves tearful sportswomen frightened of speaking their minds? And what kind of delusional progressive politician believes the public will vote for it?

It is both shocking and disgusting that sports administrators  agreeing with a basic scientific fact which is that male puberty confers physical advantages when it comes to sport should live in fear for voicing basic facts about biology. Those who work for sporting agencies are being coerced into going along with policies that they know are wrong and will damage women’s sports but cannot say anything about these awful policies for fear of job loss and possibly intimidation by trans activists and ostracism.

Mr Cohen added:

Fear works. You normalise an idea by making opponents afraid to contradict you. If all that were being attempted were the co-option of private companies, state bureaucracies, academia, publishing, the arts and the liberal media into a serious campaign against racism and misogyny, most progressives would say the ends justify the means and move on. But – and surely I do not need to spell this out – when the means include the suppression of debate you open the door to every variety of grifter and fanatic. Employees and children are forced to take scientifically worthless implicit bias tests. Progressive institutions are too scared to defend the material reality of biological sex difference, without which the theory of evolution, with its emphasis on sexual selection, could not exist. Like creationists, they have locked themselves into anti-Darwinian obscurantism. But unlike the religious right, they cannot claim that God made them do it.

I read this piece and got more and more angry the more I read it. Those who are genuinely progressive and classically liberal should have no fear of freedom of speech or freedom of conscience. However the liberal left is a completely different kettle of fish entirely. They must know that allowing challenge to their ideas might destroy them so in order to keep their ideology and their policies on track, they punish, intimidate, oppress and silence those who disagree with them. This is a disgraceful state of affairs it truly is.