Modern Political Correctness: Better Than a Book-Burning, by Tim Wilms.
Traditionally, book-burners had to bide their time until the offending tome was published before they could spray the kerosene and strike a match, but modern technology and social media have changed all that. Today, when word spreads that a book which challenges the left’s preferred narrative and prevailing ideology is about to appear, the approach is pre-emptive and most definitely pro-active. … The modern approach aims to make sure ink is never laid on paper in the first place.
A recent book arguing against homosexual marriage found its printer intimidated into not printing it.
This has been the story with Stealing from a Child: The Injustice of Marriage Equality, the recently released book by Dr David van Gend, who heads the Australian Marriage Forum. … the company that had agreed to print the book and with which Connor Court had enjoyed an untroubled, ten-year commercial relationship – McPherson’s Printing Group — suddenly refused, citing the subject matter. …
[W]e are no longer living in a country where both sides of an argument enjoy equal access to the pulpit of public opinion, this being especially so just now in regard to same-sex marriage, whose advocates typify the difference in attitude between the “progressive” and “conservative” mind. Conservatives tend to believe that those who disagree are most likely ill-informed and that a civil conversation might change their minds.
Those on the left, by contrast, tend to view all who differ as evil and give their arguments no more than a contemptuous dismissal. Rather than argue the point, in this instance they have pitched a narrative that paints opponents as gay-bashing bigots and jackbooted homophobes, further insisting that mass outbreaks of suicide and mental collapse must surely follow if such views are allowed to be freely expressed. When the vocal left turns out in force to oppose something — well, anything, really — respect for free speech becomes an also-ran.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
