Good news, guys. Donald Trump is a defender of free speech. He’s making it his mission to protect it because it’s currently on the endangered list because of a serious epidemic of political correctness. He has also sown to protect ‘innocent people’ from violence. How do we know? His public service announcement came via Twitter of course.
What’s that? You’re a bit confused? I know, you thought Trump was anti free speech didn’t you? I can understand that. Sure, he has previously mooted that those protesting against him are hysterical and/or ‘paid thugs’. It’s also true that he has criticised members of the press who report on him negatively. Indeed, during his election campaign he vowed to ‘open up’ libel laws to make suing the media easier.
Well, it’s all change now. ‘What happened?’, I hear you ask. Let me clear it up for you. It started because Milo Yiannopolos – yes, he of Breitbart, yes, he who has incited so much racial hatred that he is now permanently banned from Twitter, yes, he who works for a site that asks pertinent questions such as ‘would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?’ – was due to appear to give a talk at the University of California, Berkley. His talk was cancelled because of protests staged by those who didn’t want someone who held the divisive and offensive views that Yiannopolos holds to come to their campus turned violent.
Trump has responded, as you would expect, in the only way he knows how: with a Twitter threat. Yes, he threatened to deny funding to a university because he doesn't agree with something they've done but he's still a defender of free speech...
There seems to be some confusion about free speech these days. Breitbart currently have a banner across their website which encourages you to buy branded t-shirts which read ‘Free Speech is Burning’, presumably they think this is because politically correctness is pouring fuel all over its funeral pyre. This is a view propagated not only by Breitbart and Trump, but the likes of Piers Morgan who thinks that anyone who has marched against trump is either a ‘snowflake’ or a ‘rabid feminist’.
Now, let’s be clear. Free speech is not subjective. We can’t pick and choose who does and doesn’t have a right to express themselves, that’s called censorship. As Oscar Wilde once wrote the very essence of free speech is this: ‘I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.’ And, as man of the moment, George Orwell, wrote ‘if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’, and that applies to the left as much as it does to the right. In a world where so many of us are only seeing the views of people we agree with because of social media, this is something that requires more careful thought than ever.
And yet, surely, there is a line. Having free speech is a right, in the US it’s a constitutional one. However, having a platform on which to exercise your right to free speech is a privilege, one that historically only a minority of people had.
It is now generally accepted that homophobia, sexism, racism, transphobia, xenophobia and racism are unacceptable. Hate speech is a criminal offence in this country. So, if you are a proponent of hate speech then there are serious questions to be asked about whether or not you should be allowed to retain the privilege of having a platform. That is why Yianopolous was banned from Twitter, because he was inciting racial hatred. It was a decision which was not taken quickly or lightly, but perhaps it should have been.
Here’s a quote from Milo Yiannopoulos, the ‘innocent’ person that Trump wants to protect the free speech of:
'I am speaking on college campuses because education ... is really what matters. It's a crucible where these bad ideas are formed. Bad ideas like ... progressive social justice, feminists, Black Lives Matter ... that I think is so cancerous and toxic to free expression.'
We must be tolerant of views we do not agree with, that is free speech. But, it does not necessarily follow that we should tolerate damaging intolerance of the sort expressed by Trump, Morgan and Yianopolous. Nor should we tolerate their corruption of the term ‘free speech’. They have twisted it, reshaped it and redefined it on their terms: the validate bigotry, condone hate speech and shut down those they disagree with.
Free speech is indeed under threat of extinction, but political correctness is not the cause. It is the co-option and abuse of free speech by bigots to silence those who challenge, disagree and threaten them.
Growing up I would often hear the phrase ‘political correctness’ gone mad. It would normally be uttered by older relatives when I explained to them that homophobic jokes or the purchase of racist newspapers was unacceptable. That difference in perspective highlighted one thing: the generation gap of progression.
Our generation is not mad; we are not running riot on political correctness. We simply know what is right and what is wrong, what is hate speech and what is not. The alt-right are trying to imply that this is somehow an authoritarian view, all the while advocating outright authoritarianism in the name of ‘free speech’.
Let them squirm, let them lash out, let them throw their toys out of the pram. Hate speech is hate speech. If your speech is hateful then you forfeit your platform on which to express it.
Free speech doesn’t need protecting by Donald Trump, it needs protecting from him. Political correctness doesn’t undermine free speech, it gives more people a platform on which to express it – from feminists to the Black Lives Matter Movement, to refugees and beyond. Political correctness ensures that platforms for free speech are not the privileged preserve of wealthy, white, heteronormative men who get to decide what is and isn’t allowed.
Let the alt-right complain about political correctness gone mad, what they’re doing is not better. It’s worse. Donald Trump rose to popularity, in part, because he was anti-political correctness. This, if anything, is anti-political correctness gone mad.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Free Speech And The Power Of Silence: Cutting Through The Noise Of 2015
Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.