We live in a world where the heckler’s veto is king. Where individuals can, often falsely, claim that they are made to feel unsafe by an opposing opinion and get the opposing view removed and the speaker shut down. We have a word for those who scream and shout and intimidate people in order to get others to shut up, that word is bullies.
The only way to properly tackle a bully is not to appease them, but instead to stand up to them. Only by saying ‘sod off’ to those who would intimidate others to silence them will such bullies be restrained.
The Trade Unionist and Blue Labour activist Paul Embery has said this truth much better than I could when he said:
Mr Embery is correct. If we shy away from countering and standing up to these bullies then they will only be back with more outrageous demands, more fake claims of ‘harm’ done to them and more silencing of the critics of these bullies.
This has been a recurring theme on the excellent Longrider blog.
https://www.longrider.co.uk/blog/
He frequently condemns those who cravenly apologise when confronted with the constantly offended twitter mob and praises those who stick to their guns.
My position would always be, so you disagree, then you must explain why you think that I am wrong. If your argument stands then I will gladly revise my position and, if I feel that it is appropriate, apologise. If your argument does not stand then I will point out that you are wrong and why I believe that is the case. This is the rational approach to disagreement, if you disagree then I suspect that you are wrong and, deep down, you know you are.
I’ve seen LR’s excellent comments on this issue. When reasonable people disagree and aologise that should normally be that. The one who apologises and the one apologised shake hands and move on. But with the SJW’s, the Left and the ID politics obsessives we are not dealing with reasonable people. They will not accept the apology and move on, they take it as a victory for their point of view and come back to attack the person who has apologised again and again.
I’ve been wrong on a number of things. I was wrong on covid, I was wrong to give support for the Heritage and Reclaim parties and a couple of individuals who turned out to be very dodgy as time went on, but at least I can explain why I was wrong.
You are absolutely correct in saying that the rational approach is the best one. The problem is when faced with the ‘feels over reals’ types you are not dealing with rational people.
Excellent post – shall link to it in my upcoming post on the Wasps rugby furore…