Hate crime is the new blasphemy

From Unherd we have this excellent piece – Hate crime is the new blasphemy – and it is so true.

We got rid of in most nations, with some exceptions, this ‘crime’ in recent years but now we have a new candidate, one that is more pernicious, because unlike blasphemy laws which were not, in reality, at least in most civilised nations heavily enforced we see the bilge of climate dogma force fed to us daily, nay almost hourly with ‘icons’ such as the High Priestess of the Climate Cult – Greta Thunberg leading the way with her vitriolic hatred of our world.

However, I digress somewhat – let us return to the matter in hand

In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society.” So spoke Mr Justice Julian Knowles on 14 February, ruling on the case of Harry Miller vs the College of Policing.

The ruling upheld Miller’s right to tweet critical remarks about the belief that transgender individuals are literally the sex they identify as. It was hailed by many as “a good day for free speech in Britain”, but while free speech campaigners are fond of painting today’s censorious “You can’t say that!” climate as a decline from some notional golden age of free speech, just how long — and how golden — has that age really been? MORE AT LINK

This was a rather good article, it finished

In replacing a conception of the common good with radical individualism, we have elevated as a sacred value what amounts to a self-undermining doctrine of radical solipsism, that both promotes absolute free speech and provides an unshakeable argument for its negation. This Catch-22 seems designed to drive us (and our law enforcement) collectively mad. It is fashionable to upbraid the police for their handling of gender identity related hate crime, but they merit more sympathy than criticism, as they are truly in an impossible situation.

Abolishing all restrictions on free speech will not solve this, unless we also abolish all sacred values — even our current sacred value of individual autonomy. And in that case we are effectively arguing for the abolition of all forms of social cohesion — even radically individualistic ones. This seems neither sensible nor realistic. Rather than putting up a futile resistance to blasphemy laws, a pragmatic alternative might be to consider whether in fact what we need is better sacred values.

Please read as it deals with a critical issue

Furthermore past musings on hate speech by Justice Minister Andrew Little,Ardern’s Christchurch Call, the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ, the deplatforming of Don Brash by Massey University,mutterings from Winston Peters on the press, are all examples that suggest to me that we have a problem in NZ as well. Especially given recent comments by the Chief Human Rights Commissioner.