Who is right and who is wrong and who’s to say.

Subject: Who is right and who is wrong and who’s to say.





The issue of ‘Hate Speech’ and its effect on ‘Free Speech’ has serious implications not only on what we say, how we say it and to whom but how we think. The act of having an opinion which differs from a minority opinions, no matter how well intentioned and held by an unelected, shadowy but media savvy cohort acting within society can and does lead to demonising and the use of ‘cancel culture’ to isolate opinion.

All opinion should be challenged in a healthy society but the use of psychological force where deliberate mis-information is used and published to diminish opinion is very  dangerous. The governments continuous attack on the BBC is an example of the drip drip undermining of this great institution and this at a time when news channels such as GBNews and Talk TV, both new arrives, both openly controversial and each fulfilling a purpose by airing not only right wing views but fathering  head to head debate on difficult subject matter where organisations such as the BBC is afraid to venture for fear of being accused of being racist, homophobic and intolerant of the populist view. I think it’s healthy to have your own prejudice challenged and your views re-articulated,  if for no other reason than it forces you to evaluate opinions formed in different times and under different pressure.

Opinion after all is simply that, an opinion, it’s not a law of physics with a need to test its provenance and its attraction to you is based on your life experience and a willingness to consider the alternative. How often we are forced by opinion to change ours is not to often if our opinion is based on the needs of mankind in general and not the specific need of a minority who wish to exercise power. Opinion is not ‘fact’ it’s an amalgam of views which can eventually homogenise into a cultural acceptance which then begin to form as a norm. The test of acceptance is critical but one of the imponderable difficulties of a multicultural society like ours is finding acceptable norms amongst people who have different cultures and religions. Without an overall common acceptance the difficulties of religious acceptance and cultural mores will be a fault line and lead to a destabilised society.

Exposures and education to other opinions and especially to their actual practice in the society is foremost in understanding our differences but that’s not to say because we understand that we agree and our disagreement must be heard without being tarred with the term prejudice. Our entitlement to be different is what marks us out as a nation but the difficulty of acknowledging difference in others, especially since they have become an integral part of our society leads to  great deal of soul searching especially when, for religious conformity on the the other side can not give an inch.

Tolerance is key with some religions but with others religion is unforgiving in its teaching and the observance of strict rules and our non religious based tolerance is stretched to breaking point