Doublethink is the only thought the left have got
After a night out celebrating her Chelsea club’s victory, the Matildas’ Sam Kerr was charged for the alleged crime of racially abusing a London policeman. She allegedly called him, depending on the source, either a “stupid white bastard” or “a stupid white cop”.
Ex-Australian soccer player and anti-racist activist Craig Foster, after initially criticising Kerr, argues even if it happened she has done nothing wrong. Nine’s Jacqueline Maley also suggests Kerr should not be charged.
Maley writes that Kerr should not be punished because anti-white racism “doesn’t exist”. Because whites are privileged and powerful and nonwhites are oppressed, it’s only people of colour who suffer racism.
In both cases those defending Kerr argue that because she is of Indian descent and the alleged incident involved verbally abusing a white policeman, there is no crime. Apparently, if a white person racially abuses a person of colour it’s automatically an offence.
The author of 1984, George Orwell, called it doublethink. Psychologists call it cognitive dissonance.
Doublethink involves holding two contradictory ideas at the same time while refusing to see it’s illogical and irrational. Arguing Kerr has done nothing wrong is a perfect example of doublethink.
In the dystopian novel 1984, where the dictator Big Brother rules and citizens are oppressed, Orwell offers these examples: war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. In Orwell’s Animal Farm, the slogan “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” is also doublethink.
When justifying his about-face, Foster refers to the research undertaken by the Diversity Council of Australia. The council describes its role as “leading diversity & inclusion in the workplace” and being committed to what in America is known as diversity, equity and inclusion.
Drawing on neo-Marxist postcolonial theory, the council argues race is a social construct, not biological, and as Western societies are white supremacist and guilty of structural racism, non-whites are always disadvantaged and oppressed.
Under the heading Race, the council argues that in Western countries, “peoples deemed to be non-white were treated as ‘different’, ‘outside the norm’ and inferior to peoples judged to be white”. The council also argues only powerful, privileged white people can be guilty of racism.
Racism is defined as “when an individual or organisation with racebased societal power (ie whites) discriminates, excludes, or disadvantages a racially marginalised person because of their race, colour, descent, nationality, ethnicity, religion and/or immigrant status”.
In line with the woke belief racism is so ingrained in society and allpervasive that even if you don’t intend to be racist you definitely are, the council argues: “Racism can be systemic or interpersonal, unconscious or conscious, active or passive, obvious or subtle.”
Even though Kerr is wealthy, privileged and feted around the world as one of soccer’s leading players, Foster and Maley argue she cannot have committed the alleged offence as she is oppressed by a society that is racist and guilty of whiteness.
Ignored is the fact that the reason the statue representing law is blindfolded is because the legal system is impartial; instead of being judged because of the colour of one’s skin, class, gender or ethnicity, one is judged according to what is legally fair and just.
The current example involving Kerr is not the only example of cultural-left doublethink. The Marxist academic Herbert Marcuse defined tolerance as intolerance.
Such is the unjust and oppressive nature of Western, capitalist societies such as Australia, Marcuse argued, the “conclusion reached is that the realisation of the objective of tolerance would call for intolerance toward prevailing policies, attitudes, and opinions”.
While tolerating different opinions and beliefs is a tenet of liberal democracies, Marcuse said tolerating freedom of speech and freedom of expression must be cancelled, as such freedoms strengthen “the tyranny of the majority”.
Doublethink, even though irrational, unjust and contradictory, explains why in the pursuit of justice and freedom any who fail to conform to woke ideology are vilified and attacked. In Britain, Germaine Greer and J.K. Rowling are no-platformed for arguing men can never be women.
In Australia, Bettina Arndt has also been no-platformed for arguing not all men are violent and misogynist, and Melbourne University’s Holly Lawford-Smith vilified and made to feel unsafe because of her views about transgenderism. As argued by the radical feminist Camille Paglia: “We are plunged once again into an ethical chaos where intolerance masquerades as tolerance and where individual liberty is crushed by the tyranny of the group.”
Dr Kevin Donnelly is a senior fellow at the ACU’s PM Glynn Institute.