The past couple of years have seen large scale anti-racism protests and a general change in the atmosphere about what is reasonable and what is not. This has been a welcome change. Racism, in all its forms is wrong. Not just morally, but scientifically – there are no other races of human beings on the planet; there used to be, perhaps if we still had Neanderthals or Denisovians or those little hobbit guys that lived in Indonesia, then maybe racism could be plausible. “I hate those little fuckers, with their hairy feet, their two breakfasts, and what’s with that fucking jewellery obsession? Fucking weirdos.”

I could understand that even if I didn’t agree with it. You see, people aren’t assholes because of the colour of their skin, they are assholes because they are just fucking assholes. Some countries and cultures have more assholes than others; that is often a product of their culture. Some cultures suck, some suck more than others. Criticising someone’s bigoted, repressive, and just fucked up culture is not racism.

Believing – and ‘believing’ is the correct terminology, because it is a belief system that is proven to be erroneous – that someone is inferior because of their skin colour, hair type, eye shape, or penis size is just plain wrong. And that cuts both ways, white people are subject to racism too. Every colour and creed can be racist, in fact they all are, and they are also wrong.

Censorship and Totalitarianism

The problem is we – the non-racists – believe that we can ‘cure’ racism if everyone just stopped, well, thinking and saying racist things. The prevailing mood, across the mainstream and social media landscape is to censor racists, or racially insensitive comments. Some platforms actively block such posts. People have gotten fired, censored, and bullied for their comments. The problem is most of the people doing the bullying and censoring are just as bad as those they condemn.

People have a right to have their beliefs, and their views, and they should be allowed to articulate them. Protesters in America used their First Amendment rights to protest, to say how they feel, to speak freely. However, these same people are denying the rights of others to give their views. When Twitter censor a post, they are denying the First Amendment rights of those they censor (I don’t care about the bullshit ‘private company’ line used to defend them).

This is one of the key tenets of fascism or totalitarian regimes. There is only one view: the politically accepted one. By denying freedom of expression, they are cultivating the very society they purport to rail against. The people that are pushing this though are not anti-racists, I don’t see many black commentators (at least those that don’t have some financial interest) asking for this type of censorship; no, they are always white of a certain political leaning. They are using racism, and the oppression of black people (cause let’s face it we’re really talking about black oppression), for their own political ends. They want to censor their political opponents.

Now it is race, next time it will be something else – gender and pandemics anyone – until the entire narrative of modern society is controlled by them. That is the end game. Unfortunately, their opponents are racist, sexist, bigoted, religious kooks, and can’t fight back against this type of censorship without making it clear that they are racist, sexist, bigoted, religious kooks. That puts them in a bind. And us. Because it means freedom loving people like us have to fight to defend freedom against both sides. That’s tiring.

When Wrong is Right

You see debate is good. We don’t all have all the answers. Some people believe they do, some people believe they have no answers. Both groups are wrong. And being wrong is okay. Being wrong is human. People are allowed to be WRONG. People are allowed to fail at life. Throughout our lives we have all taken exams, and at some stage many of us have failed, at the very least we don’t get all the answers right. People that are racists and bigots are wrong. But they are allowed to be. The people who shout them down and try to censor them are also wrong.

We can’t stop people being racists. We can educate, but some of the most racist people are educated at the most prestigious schools and universities – does anyone think the Eton/Oxbridge educated Tories aren’t racists or Harvard educated Republicans? All we can do is every time we see something racist, hear racism, or even just fucking vibe it, we need to call it out. Tell them they are full of shit and that their views are abhorrent. That they are behind the times. They are living in another century.

Frankly, I like it when they tweet racist shit, when they put up racist signs, as long as they are not directly harassing an individual or a group or committing acts of violence. I like it because now I know you’re a racist fucking prick. No matter what else you do or say it is now out in the open. You can’t hide from me. No more. I can now choose to take my custom to another business, or not waste my energy on cultivating a relationship with someone who is a piece of shit.

When you drown out the voices of those you disagree with, they’ll stop engaging with you, the debate will cease. You might think that you’ve won the day, carried the battle as they say. But you haven’t. You haven’t changed their views. In fact, you’ve probably hardened them against you.

There is nothing more annoying than someone hectoring you, shouting you down, refusing to allow you to have your say – maybe you are wrong, maybe just misguided, nevertheless, you have an opinion. If you’ve ever experienced that, how have you reacted? Doubled down on your beliefs? Maybe. At the very least probably refused to engage with those other viewpoints entirely.

When we censor the bigots and racists, they won’t stop being bigots and racists. They’ll just go underground, and you won’t see them anymore. You won’t know who they are, where they live, and where they work. We know this to be true. History has proved it and we are living it today.

Following the US Civil War, the victorious North embarked on a policy of ‘Reconstruction’ to reintegrate the defeated Confederate states back into the Union. No real punishment was exacted on the South for their war of racial suppression – mainly because most Northerners were racists too.

Although, given the way the wind was blowing it was prudent for Southerners to keep their massive fucking racist mouths shut. They responded with a whole bunch of racist laws (the Jim Crow laws) and secret societies like the Ku Klux Klan. By censoring them today we risk a return to the ways of the past. Ways that brought us to where we are today.

Let the racists protest. Let the racists rant and tweet, post pictures of themselves with Confederate flags, and pictures of themselves at KKK barbeques with little Elvis and Jolene. Don’t shout them down. Don’t scream at them and lose your mind. Let them out themselves. I want to know who they are so I can make a conscious decision to avoid them, personally, and professionally.

Censorship hurts everyone, everyone has a right to express their views. And everyone has the right to be wrong