The drift towards authoritarianism

‘THE AUTHORITARIAN LEFT’S WAR ON FREE SPEECH

The drift of Australian governments and institutions towards authoritarianism, is becoming truly alarming.

A recent submission by the Australian Academy of Science recommended stronger censorship of those it accuses of spreading “climate denialism” online.

Sky News Australia and its “media personalities” are singled out as a “key source of climate science misinformation globally”:

“During COP26 in particular, they downplayed the climate emergency and amplified accusations of hypocrisy against politicians and other figures attending the Glasgow summit”.

AAS calls on Big Tech to:

“Stop promoting and funding climate denial, start labelling it as misinformation, and stop giving the advantages of their enormous platform to lies and misinformation.”

The submission even refers to a recent report from AIMS which shows how the Barrier Reef’s coral extent is the highest on record, describing “such material” as a “barrier to good policy and a healthy society.”

There is a word for this kind of mentality – it’s called “authoritarian.”

Everywhere we look today, Australians’ hard-won right to freedom of expression is being actively undermined by this ‘authoritarianism’ of our so-called ‘governing classes’.

And every little restriction they impose on one sort of speech, is used as mission creep towards censoring another.

Without free expression, it will soon be impossible to criticise government or elected officials without fear of retaliation.

As Ira Glasser, former director of the ACLU once said:

“The real antagonist of speech is power”.

There will always be speech in defence of existing power structures, he argued.  But speech that opposes these power structures CAN ONLY EXIST WHEN AND WHERE IT IS FREE.

Lord Sumption outlined the importance of free speech by saying:

“We have to accept the implications of human curiosity.  Some of what people believe will be wrong.  Some of it may even be harmful, not just to those who hold those beliefs but to others.  We cannot have truth without accommodating error.  It is the price that we pay for allowing knowledge and understanding to develop and human civilisation to advance.”

Australian governments and institutions, however, have become increasingly hostile to the whole idea of freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought and freedom of expression.

The public are treated as children who must be protected from ‘harmful’ ideas, while those with contrarian views are demonised as ‘thought criminals’ and silenced.

The goal is no longer to encourage free discussion but to strongarm people into conformity with a particular ideology.

They aren’t known as ‘the Authoritarian Left’ for nothing.