SARAH VINE: LIBERALS ARE THE BIGOTS NOW
WE ALL know a bigot when we meet one, or at least we think we do. The reactionary old gent, set in his ways. The stubborn old woman, distrustful of everything and everyone ‘different’. But in recent years the face of bigotry has started to get a lot younger and, oddly, a lot more socially and politically liberal.
You know the type: Remain voters who refuse to accept the result of the Referendum; militant cyclists screaming abuse at motorists; Corbynistas; Extinction Rebellion; the trans lobby; certain elements of Black Lives Matter.
People and organisations who would consider themselves and their causes highly socially progressive, but whose methods are precisely the opposite and, in many instances, brutally ruthless.
These types approach their mission with an evangelism that stems not so much from a desire to improve the world around them but from the absolute certainty of the superiority of their conviction sand the unshakeable belief that anyone who dares to question them is an inferior human being. That their opponents are not just wrong, but also wicked and must be destroyed.
THESE sorts of people are not content to allow the rest of us to rub alongside with our slightly opposing views. They want us to join their cause. They are determined – in fact they insist – that we embrace their ideology and rewire our hearts and minds accordingly.
And if we don’t – either because we’re just not sure they’re as right as they think they are, or because we have an opposing view or even because (whisper it) we don’t really care all that much, they will use their proselytising zeal to bring us to our knees. In the case of BLM, quite literally. The great irony about these people is that they don’t see themselves as bigots at all; it is everyone else who is prejudiced for not agreeing with them. The even greater irony is that the majority consider themselves to be supremely kind, tolerant individuals – even though when it comes to opposing views they’re about as understanding as Anna Win tour might be when the intern brings her the wrong kind of coffee. The latest example of such modern bigotry is the case of the school chaplain who was fired for preaching a sermon about how important it is that everyone should respect each other’s ideologies, however much they might disagree with them. Speaking in the context of a recent visit to his school by an organisation called Educate and Celebrate, whose aim is ‘to make society a more welcome place for everybody’ by providing LGBT+
I congratulate the Duchess of Sussex on her literary debut. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘royalty cheque’.
inclusion training for staff and pupils, the Reverend Bernard Randall said that while he accepted t he facts put forward by t he speaker, there were nonetheless certain ideological aspects of her lecture – such as, for example, the belief that a person’s gender is independent of any biological factor – which pupils were entitled to question. ‘You should no more be told you have to accept LGBT ideology than you should be told you must be in favour of Brexit, or must be Muslim,’ he said, adding: ‘You are perfectly at liberty to hear ideas out, and then think, “No, not for me.” ’
For this he was reported to the Government’s anti-terrorism programme, Prevent, by the school’s ‘safeguarding lead’.
Because he had dared to challenge the dogma being presented in no uncertain terms to pupils as fact – as all these things are these days – he was accused of being a potential terrorist.
The irony is breathtaking. Because it i s not people l i ke Mr Randall who are the terrorists here.
It’s those who, under the banner of kindness and inclusivity, shut down anyone who disagrees with them. They are the true bullies and bigots in society today.