It is often suggested that, as a liberal, I should carry a torch for free speech. And, it’s true, I do strongly support freedom of speech. You would therefore think that, in theory, I would therefore be supportive of the Free Speech Union, Toby Young’s latest attempt to get noticed.
Unfortunately, as it turns out, Toby doesn’t actually believe in free speech, at least he doesn’t appear to believe in free speech for those who disagree with him. That doesn’t really come as a great surprise, as he seems to begrudge the notion that with freedom of speech should come the “freedom” to accept the consequences.
Having had those consequences brought home to him when he withdrew from his appointment as a member of the board of the Office for Students, he seems to have chosen the role of martyr. If he was really to make a half decent martyr, he’d have left up the 50,000 plus tweets that he deleted in a frenzy of history rewriting. But, it seems, he didn’t want to stand by his original comments, or the liturgy of offensive articles he wrote and was lucratively paid for.
The thing about liberty is that it is intended for everyone - as long as they’re willing to accept the consequences of their actions. Many so-called libertarians (as opposed to genuine libertarians whom I respect even as I disagree with them) find that a bit difficult to cope with, merely using libertarianism as a justification to offend. Take, for example, Chris Mounsey, who, as leader of the Libertarian Party UK, took great delight in being offensive in a quite vile manner but, when it began to rebound on him, decided that his job and his family were rather more important than his right to offend.
In fairness to him, he was right to protect his job and his family. It was a pity that he hadn’t apparently given the consequences to them much thought up until the point where he was exposed.
Returning to Toby though, he’s been a pretty lucky boy on the whole. He’s ridden his connections to have opportunities that might not have come so easily to the rest of us, and used the benefits he has gleaned to, for the most part, fail at a series of things. Failing upwards, it seems, as there are evidently sufficient people willing to give him money to continue whining self-piteously about how he is oppressed and “cancelled”.
The thing about freedom of speech is not that it is a blank cheque. It is an opportunity to also demonstrate how you regard the rest of the community. What you choose to say, and what you refrain from saying, tell everyone else a lot about the sort of person you are, and whether or not you really respect their liberties as much as you demand your own.
And, by acting as Toby has done in attempting to surreptitiously influence a supposedly independent group campaigning for free speech and to constrain it in its campaigning, he has demonstrated that, far from believing in free speech, he merely believes in abusing others who don’t share his views.
Sadly, like so many self-proclaimed radicals, it turns out that he’s a reactionary after all, only interested in personal advantage. You follow him at your own risk...
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