The French Enlightenment writer Denis Diderot wrote in an essay that ‘from fanaticism to barbarism is only one step’.
The extreme wing of the Left has certainly stridden across that line in the sand. And it is the actions of cultural barbarism of these fanatics that has awakened large sections of society to finally push back.
I’ve written about the desecration of artworks by so-called environmentalists, the attempt to ban books for the most ludicrous reasons, the championing of gender confusion, and the propagation of racist policies. The continued and blatant bias of the increasingly less mainstream media (the same one that lied to the world for years about Biden’s obvious debilitated state) is barely worth mentioning these days.
These acts, by radicals drunk with power, let slip the mask – that underneath a thin lacquer of sophistication, niceness, and high morals, is hidden the picture of Dorian Gray – decrepit, dishevelled, and detached from reality.
Trump’s election victory has burst the comfortable bubble that many on the left operate in, physically and mentally. The shattering of illusions has excited what seems to be a violent death throe among the institutions that have been captive by leftist dogmas. Those who are opposed to this dogmatism should be extra alert – the death throes of the fanatics are often very dangerous.
For instance, in the UK, where the right-wing Reform Party is poised to overtake both major parties, speech-policing seems more Orwellian than ever before, as the constabulary is fundamentally led by people who are Woke fanatics.
Recently, a couple with small children in Hertfordshire were arrested in front of their crying daughters and held for 11 hours. Six police officers turned up to their house. One would think they were tackling a terrorist cell. But no, they arrested the couple on suspicion of harassment for allegedly complaining about the recruiting process in their daughter’s primary school on a WhatsApp group. The supposed hate-filled messages are totally anodyne.
This is despite knife crimes spiking and unknown thousands of young girls left to be ‘groomed’ and raped by mainly Pakistani gangs for decades – a dark stain that is still not properly addressed by the British government and police, who seems laser-focused to marshal all of its resources on eradicating potentially hurty words on the internet.
There are protests in the UK over the recent and significant Supreme Court ruling that the terms ‘women’ and ‘sex’ refer to biological women and biological sex, contra what trans activists have been peddling for years.
The fact that it took the Supreme Court to settle what has been self-evident since time immemorial is laughable enough, but that there are people protesting this, fully displaying their psychodrama on the streets, shows how deep the termites of extreme Leftism has burrowed. The police certainly didn’t think it is necessary to arrest any of the trans-activist protesters, even those holding signs suggesting J.K. Rowling should be burned at the stake like witches of yore. Nor has there been arrests of those who saw fit to damage statues, including that of Dame Millicent Fawcett, one of the original women’s rights campaigners.
Australian police are not doing any better. In Brisbane, police forcibly removed Canadian activist Billboard Chris for ‘obstruction’, when the man was wearing a billboard and standing in a corner of a public square in Brisbane, talking only to those who approached him. This man’s billboard says: ‘Children cannot consent to puberty blockers.’ Common sense to most, but a moral labyrinth to the fanatical Left.
In the US, the fanatical Left is going through paroxysms of denial. In Virginia, where the 2021 gubernatorial race was won by Republican Governor Youngkin largely over his opposition of Woke overreach in schools, Fairfax County school board is pushing to introduce Leftist gender identity curriculum in elementary school, despite majority opposition from parents. Good luck with that playbook in the November gubernatorial elections.
I hope that even the zealots will move on to the other stages of grief soon. In the meantime, the key lesson here is to realise that it takes time and fortitude to weed out the rot. The price of freedom is indeed eternal vigilance.
