Rod Liddle summed this up well in a recent issue of the Spectator: "Try being a social worker who thinks gay adoptions are problematic. Or a doctor who disproves of abortion or gender transitioning. Or a student who quite likes Germaine Greer and wearing a sombrero. Or a teacher who thinks Trump is maybe OK. (The headmaster at a school in south London recently told pupils that if any child uttered the same sorts of words as Donald Trump about immigration, they'd be excluded.) Try being a judge who thinks an awful lot of hate crimes are imaginary or vexatious. In all cases you'd be drummed out. No job, You'd be finished. There would be tribunals - where you would be judged by other upholders of the liberal elite - and you'd be out. That is what we mean by the liberal elite."

Liddle also addressed the notion mentioned here that we have had years of non left liberals in these positions: "I remember as a speechwriter for the Labour party in the early 1980s suggesting that we do something in support of the teachers, who were complaining about pay.'F**k them - they're all Tories' I was told. And so statistically they were at the time. And in the 1970s the BBC, the Church of England, the judiciary and the emergent quangos were small 'c' conservative. Elites last for about two generations. Our liberal elite has lasted since about 1985."

Edited by hedgehog50 (06 Mar 2017 6.57pm)

Rod Liddle summed this up well in a recent issue of the Spectator: "Try being a social worker who thinks gay adoptions are problematic. Or a doctor who disproves of abortion or gender transitioning. Or a student who quite likes Germaine Greer and wearing a sombrero. Or a teacher who thinks Trump is maybe OK. (The headmaster at a school in south London recently told pupils that if any child uttered the same sorts of words as Donald Trump about immigration, they'd be excluded.) Try being a judge who thinks an awful lot of hate crimes are imaginary or vexatious. In all cases you'd be drummed out. No job, You'd be finished. There would be tribunals - where you would be judged by other upholders of the liberal elite - and you'd be out. That is what we mean by the liberal elite."

Liddle also addressed the notion mentioned here that we have had years of non left liberals in these positions: "I remember as a speechwriter for the Labour party in the early 1980s suggesting that we do something in support of the teachers, who were complaining about pay.'F**k them - they're all Tories' I was told. And so statistically they were at the time. And in the 1970s the BBC, the Church of England, the judiciary and the emergent quangos were small 'c' conservative. Elites last for about two generations. Our liberal elite has lasted since about 1985."

Edited by hedgehog50 (06 Mar 2017 6.57pm)

It seems to me that your basic premise is that there are plenty of idiots whose policing of what they perceive to be 'correct' stifles reasonableness and debate. This may well be true, but do you think these are really representative of real lives or mostly just those anecdotes that are well-publicised?

I think there is a central problem with people's sense of certainty from traditional standpoints. Someone is always likely to get testy when told all x are y, whether thats men and b******s, liberal and wimps, conservatives and bigots.

Stereotypes are easy, and challenging those stereotypes is hard because the brain wants to extrapolate patterns and create habitual responses to maximise efficiency.

So, whichever side of the fence you're on, being open to an evolving understanding is hard to do. But if you think that is the agenda of these organisations, I would agree that being open to constantly challenging ways of thinking is essential to make things better.

Is that what you think their agenda is?

Which American anti trump website did you take that from.

Certainly I think the liberal left stifle free debate. And they go further in getting people sacked for the slightest criticism of their views. Furthermore, as with their react to Brexit, they label all opposition as stupid, racist, etc. It is telling that the response of liberal left champion, Legaleagle, to Liddle's words is to post a fatuous list of'14 defining characteristics of modern fascism' - although No.15 is missing, ie:'anyone who is not liberal left must be a fascist'.