writes Damian Thompson:
“Only one thing could ever persuade me to vote for the ghastly BNP,” he said. “And that’s the constant lectures about racism from our bishops. They never shut up about it, though they don’t make much of a fuss about voting for fanatical pro-abortionists.”
PS: when someone talks like that, they really deep down don’t think the BNP is that “ghastly”…
Speaking of “racism”, here’s a memo to the usually unsilly Lorrie Goldstein:
(Let’s get this out of the way: perhaps only another writer would pick this up, but of all the words in the English language Goldstein could have chosen to describe Steyn’s column-writing skills, I’m struck by the fact that he selected the word “good.” This is the moral equivalent of describing Sophia Loren as “not unattractive” — it says more about the describer than the describee…)
Anyway:
We have more than enough people running about “condemning racism”. Frankly, we have too many. It is counterproductive (see above). And the fact that they are almost always whites like Goldstein simply adds to the bitter hilarity of the whole spectacle.
There is nothing particularly courageous or original or even essential about “condeming racism”, especially since Canada’s most recent “racist” “outrage” happened when a Quebec suspiciously French-sounding MP used the expression “tar baby” (correctly, somewhat to my amazement), which prompted troublemaking morons to raise a fuss that went blessedly nowhere.
If saying that “Canadian Tamils who don’t like it here should go back where they came from” is racist, then Lorrie Goldstein is the one who sounds like an arrogant bigot, because he’s just blithely insulted most of the Sun’s readers, and a few million other ordinary Canadians who rightly hold that view.
Not being a hack, Mark Steyn has decided to expend his energies doing the truly courageous, original and essential thing: tirelessly pointing out that — let’s all say it one more time — unless you believe in free speech for everyone, including those whose views you find disgusting, you do not believe in free speech at all.
And in a society that increasingly does NOT believe in free speech, and favors faddish political correctness and a kind of bullying faux politeness, Steyn is the brave and principled one. Everything else is just chin music.
Alas, I imagine the sheep sometimes resent the sheepdog…
