Freedom of speech and thought are under attack in Canada right now, and we are letting it happen. Like run-of-the-mill dictators, cancel culture and online speech codes are successful when they are able to pick off, one-by-one, the few with the courage to speak uncomfortable truths or ask uncomfortable questions..They do this with fear as their weapon. Fear of being ostracized, losing jobs, reputation, or in extreme cases, physical safety..The best way to fight for these freedoms is for people to exercise them in the open..In early February, federal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault expressed his support for a broadcast panel report which called for: the government licensing of media organizations, content requirements approved by government-appointed officials, lists of media designated as government approved or not, and bureaucratic control over content. In short, an end to the free press. There was immediate backlash, and Guibeault backtracked in damage control mode – making his government’s intentions more ambiguous..Last week, the City of Regina rescinded its decision to hire PHD ecologist, Patrick Moore as a keynote speaker at an upcoming conference. The city canceled him after an outrage mob demanded that he be deplatformed. Moore’s crime is questioning the orthodoxy of catastrophic global warming. Rather than debate Moore, his critics choose to silence him..The University of British Columbia is being sued by the UBC Free Speech Club for their refusal to allow journalist Andy Ngo to speak. The university reasons that Antifa thugs might physically attack him – as they have before – and that he therefore shouldn’t be allowed to speak. To them, those being violently attacked must not speak, for fear of provoking a gang of thugs to attack him. .There are worse countries than Canada in defending basic freedoms. Canadians won’t be killed for speaking out, but they are afraid to do so far too often. As psychology professor Jordan Peterson said in a recent Rex Murphy interview, “Civilized people, socialized people cannot tolerate being mobbed.” .Rejection is one of the most painful human experiences. Humanity’s deep-seated need for acceptance leads to conformity, and often a voluntary loss of freedom. As German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann explains, this becomes a spiral of silence. To reverse this trend, people must overcome their fear and speak out. Those who have done so can provide examples worth emulating..In the 5th Century BC, Socrates was permanently silenced by the cancel culture of his day. He believed he had a moral imperative to tell the truth. Prophetically, he warned Athens that their actions would have dire consequences. Indeed, the silencing of their greatest philosopher helped lead to the collapse of democracy in Greece, and eventually their conquest by Macedonia. Ancient Greece’s modern Western successors must take this warning to heart..Jordan Peterson studied how otherwise normal people were capable of participating in the evils of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. For him, it came down to a fear of speaking the truth out loud for fear of being ostracized, or physically harmed. While a less extreme example, this led him to refuse to back down in the face of laws and speech codes requiring him to use mandatory artificial new gender pronouns. .Peterson understands – as Socrates did – the larger implications of silence. “A world without freedom of speech, is a world of slavery and tyranny.” .Ricky Gervais burned the place to the ground during his opening remarks at the Golden Globes. He was incendiary, and appeared to give little thought to the politically correct platitudes expected of the event, other than to deliberately break them down. Gervais was doubtless aware of the potential cost of speaking out. He spent the last few months singled out by a Twitter mob for sarcastically defending JK Rowling. Rowling was herself defending a former tax accountant who lost her job for saying men and women can’t change genders with mere words..Like the Holy Fool of Russian folk culture, Gervais and Peterson have accepted being ostracized by ‘elite’ society and are thereby free to express inconvenient truths. They overcame their fear of being deplatformed and ostracized. By exercising their freedoms, they defend it for the rest of us..Tessa Littlejohn is a columnist for the Western Standard
