@pers-books / pers-books.tumblr.com
The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.
-- Edward Abbey, 1988
Horrible to think that this is an issue again 35 years later. Or perhaps, more accurately, has continued to be an issue even 35 years later.
"Universities should be places that open minds, not close them, where ideas can be freely challenged," he will say. "In universities in America and worryingly in the UK, we have seen examples of groups seeking to stifle those who do not agree with them. "We must not allow this to happen." He will warn that young people should have the "resilience and confidence" to challenge controversial opinions and be able to have "open, frank and rigorous discussions". However, he will add that institutions must ensure there is no place for hatred, discrimination, extremism or racism.
Yeah, I don't see this working in a way that protects the vulnerable, eg Queer young people, or Jewish or Muslim students, or students from ethnic minorities.
I do think we Brits need to train ourselves to start intervening - even though I know it can be scary: I know I would be terrified, but I now feel I cannot ignore this and hope someone else will intervene.
if you see racist attacks occurring in your locality, call 999 to report it, then intervene. If you're scared (which I completely understand) appeal to those around you to help - if enough of us stand up against these thugs, we can make a difference. We can certainly show that not everyone in Britain is a fascist, racist Brexiteer.
(Going onto social media afterwards to lament it isn't enough - this situation needs ordinary people to be heroic, because no one deserves the abuse and violence that's being openly displayed on British streets since Friday:
https://twitter.com/Far_Right_Watch/status/746856520919433216?s=09
- the link is to a tweet reporting that incidents of racial hate speech/malicious communications in person and online had already jumped 540% in 36 hours.)
