Some thoughts on censorship, by Brendan O’Neill.

Beware talk of phoney rights. One of the most striking things in the argument for censorship today is how the language of freedom is twisted to demand restrictions and restraints. The censorious claim merely to be defending their rights rather than limiting other people’s. They are merely “rearranging public platforms” to give the marginalised a voice, which is doublespeak for demanding that certain people be No Platformed in favour of others. …

Those who hide from offence risk becoming dogmatic, believing things without knowing why they believe them, while those who hurl themselves into open, testy, ugly debate will be better free-thinkers and more rounded moral creatures. …

Where blasphemy laws elevated Christ above the fray of mere mortal debate, therapeutic censorship makes us all into little Christs, deserving of our own personal blasphemy law and forcefield against criticism. It’s the high point of our culture of narcissism.