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Atkinson on the new intolerance

23 comments

Written by Sinclair Davidson

October 22nd, 2012 at 11:59 am

Posted in Uncategorized

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23 Responses to 'Atkinson on the new intolerance'

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  1. What’s Mordy’s email address?

    Michael

    22 Oct 12 at 12:16 pm

  2. I would watch this guy read the phone book. So great.

    Matt

    22 Oct 12 at 12:32 pm

  3. Really good speech.

    I hope lefties everywhere are proud of themselves.

    C.L.

    22 Oct 12 at 12:39 pm

  4. Good to see. We need a few more like Mr Atkinson, who are willing to defend our freedoms.

    dianeh

    22 Oct 12 at 2:07 pm

  5. Watched it over the weekend and shared it with friends on Facebook too. Very, very good speech I thought.

    tbh

    22 Oct 12 at 2:12 pm

  6. This speech was just a defence of licentiousness, a plea for bigotry of the worst kind. One can only hope this appalling campaign doesn’t succeed.

    Gareth Hamilton

    22 Oct 12 at 3:15 pm

  7. Uh oh, Hammy’s appalled again. Apparently, he gets offended by people outing police horses.

    2dogs

    22 Oct 12 at 3:43 pm

  8. Laugh all you want, but Gareth knows better than to mock a horse, or its life partner.

    Quentin George

    22 Oct 12 at 3:47 pm

  9. What’s the risk? Does the horse want to break the news to its mother gently, rather than risk her finding out from the bookies at Ascot?

    2dogs

    22 Oct 12 at 3:54 pm

  10. Why do we have to be tolerant? I can see a use for such a strategy on occasion but so many ideas and expressions and actions are simply ludicrous or dangerous that I do not wish to tolerate them. Homosexuality is one such matter I do not wish to tolerate. I can tolerate -even love – the sinner, the bugger, well enough without tolerating his demand to prozletise. Yet the moment anyone suggests that homosexuality just might be the desire of 2% and therefore not even usual let alone normal, than I am told I must tolerate it. I will not. Bugger tolerance if it is to be mandated.

    Amfotas

    22 Oct 12 at 4:14 pm

  11. I’m offended by all those who object to any offence that I may give to anyone who is offended by this brilliant speech.

    amcoz

    22 Oct 12 at 4:42 pm

  12. A great speech. The genie is out of the bottle and many concerned basically liberal and civilised (often quite leftie leaning) people are desperately now trying to shove it back in with all of their force. Good on them, good on us. This genie lives in a very bad place and would drag us there, going quietly, if we don’t kick up and use genie repellent while we still can.

    Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

    22 Oct 12 at 5:37 pm

  13. Most of my heroes never joined me on my journey away from the Left, so its good to see one of them affirming my instincts.

    Humour is anti etablishment, you cant be funny when you are the establishment.

    Jannie

    22 Oct 12 at 8:09 pm

  14. Bugger tolerance if it is to be mandated.

    I agree Amfotas. Mandated charity becomes welfarism. What does Mandated tolerance become?

    Jannie

    22 Oct 12 at 8:13 pm

  15. Resentment.

    Gab

    22 Oct 12 at 8:13 pm

  16. Rowan Atkinson is a complete fucking arsehole for publicising his neo-conservative viewpoint.

    He is an absolute mussel.

    Kaboom

    22 Oct 12 at 8:39 pm

  17. Neo-conservative? Are you kidding?

    There were all sorts of laws banning the use of obscene language such as section 7AA of the Vagrants Gaming and Other Offences Act 1931.

    There was an outcry against them in the 70s as the police had been using them against anyone who happened to use foul language at them, particularly some notable cases involving aboriginal protesters.

    It was actually the Left that led the campaign against those laws at the time, and we are certainly well rid of them.

    The current return to sensitivity over language is an ugly and reactionary development. I can’t understand why opposition to it is not bipartisan. Have the Left completely forgotten how bad these laws were, and how badly they were abused? Does the Left have absolutely no concept of how the law of unintended consequences actually works? Can’t they see what is now being advocated is the direct result of the same attitudes that they had to fight before?

    2dogs

    22 Oct 12 at 9:38 pm

  18. Have the Left completely forgotten how bad these laws were, and how badly they were abused? Does the Left have absolutely no concept of how the law of unintended consequences actually works? Can’t they see what is now being advocated is the direct result of the same attitudes that they had to fight before?

    No, maybe and yes. They realised how devastating those laws were when they were on the receiving end. Now they are dishing it out, with almost masturbatory glee, and they won’t wake up again until it’s turned back on them with a vengeance.

    Her Majesty should give Atkinson a knighthood solely for making this speech.

    perturbed

    23 Oct 12 at 1:09 am

  19. One of the best bits of the speech:

    That is what you might call The New Intolerance, a new but intense desire to gag uncomfortable voices of dissent. ‘I am not intolerant’, say many people; say many softly spoken, highly-educated, liberal-minded people: ‘I am only intolerant of intolerance’. And people tend to nod sagely and say ‘Oh, Wise words, wise words’ and yet if you think about this supposedly inarguable statement for longer than five seconds…

    I won’t spoil it – listen to the speech if you haven’t already. It’s really very good. I’d seen it linked a few places, but hadn’t bothered listening until recently. But I should have listened sooner – it’s worth it.

    Fleeced

    23 Oct 12 at 1:20 am

  20. Yes good points above. Leftist speech should be banned on public sanitation grounds and only then will the smug Leftist calls for speech codes stop. Leftism doesn’t add anything positive anyway so banning it is no big deal.

    Fisky

    23 Oct 12 at 2:12 am

  21. “when they were on the receiving end”

    But what of the example of calling the police horse “gay”?

    This was both an insult to (a) the police, and (b) homosexuals. It defies Left/Right classification. It seems the arrest may have been motivated by (a), but ostensibly proceeded on the basis of (b).

    A great many insults are going to fall outside the political sphere. The free speech that the Left had fought for in the past covered these as well. Are they just throwing these people under a bus for the sake of a political point?

    2dogs

    23 Oct 12 at 6:07 am

  22. No, they’re throwing them under the bus for the sake of power.

    perturbed

    23 Oct 12 at 6:12 am

  23. Ironically Hammygar is opposed to reforming a law that would see him in jail for many of his own comments…

    Brian of Moorabbin

    23 Oct 12 at 10:19 am

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