The whole thing is a con trick. But what is interesting is why so few adults exist in our societies willing to stand up to it.
THERE is an ugly intolerance in the air. It is sometimes called “cancel culture”, but that doesn’t quite catch the whole horrible trend.
This trend insists that everyone has to think the same thing. We all have to say the same thing. And this trend has zero tolerance for, let alone delight in, the fact that people think differently from each other.
Instead it insists we all conform to one narrow view of everything. It is a wretched, life-limiting vision. And it must be opposed. By people from every side of the political aisle, and none.
A classic example of the trend emerged this week with the launch of GB News. This new news and current affairs channel includes a host of famous broadcasting names, including former BBC grand inquisitor Andrew Neil.
It has said that it is going to challenge the BBC status quo and give more diversity to UK broadcasting. But it had not broadcast even a minute of programming before the cancel mob came for it.
Activist groups decided to portray the channel as “divisive”. Because some of those on the platform have said that they would like to end “cancel culture”, these groups pretended that the channel was somehow extreme.
The channel has said it won’t follow the boring, left-wing group-think of so much media. So the activists pretended it was “far-right”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
But “truth” is not something the woke activists care about. As a result, they decided to make the most outrageous claims possible about the channel. And they then decided to pick off the advertisers one at a time. Hoping in the process to destroy the channel’s business model.
It is the same technique that has been tried in recent years on a number of newspapers and other media in this country. Target the revenue and you can hope to close them down completely, or at least change the editorial decisions.
Before you know it, we don’t have a free Press, but a Press dictated by mobs. Mobs carefully directed by sinister and unaccountable groups with a deeply political agenda of their own.
Such people have already chalked up some successes against GB News. Within hours of the channel starting to broadcast, the cancel mob were taking notes. They then started the campaign against every company that had advertised on the new channel.
Outrageous claims
The Swedish furniture company Ikea was among the first to agree to withdraw its advertising on the channel. The retailer said the new channel is not in sync with its “humanistic values”.
Who knew, as they were struggling to assemble an Ikea flatpack, that the whole thing was based on “humanistic values”? I’ve felt a lot of things when struggling with their wretched furniture. But “humanism” has never been one of them.
At least Ikea has quickly seen sense. Yesterday it reversed its ad ban, saying it was “too soon to make an informed decision” and adding “it was not our intention to polarise our customers or others. A decision on our future approach will be taken in due course.”
One of the other advertisers to buckle under this stupid pressure is a cider company called Kopparberg. Person- ally I’ve never been able to stomach cider of any kind, so Kopparberg wasn’t on my radar. It certainly is now, after the company claimed that its adverts had run on GB News “without our knowledge”.
A post on the company’s social media account said: “Kopparberg is a drink for everyone and we have immediately suspended our ads from this channel pending further review of its content.”
What is this *******? “Kopparberg is a drink for everyone”. Really? Is it a drink for children? Probably. Is it a drink for grown-ups who like a decent pint? Clearly not. But is it a drink exclusively for people who think exactly like whichever woke idiot put out that statement? Definitely. So not “everyone” then.
Just look at that level of sanctimony. It’s a ***** company, for goodness sake. Yet here it is preaching away about “further reviews” and much more. Who does it think it is?
The truth is that the whole thing is a classic woke mob attack. The mode of operating is now clear. It makes a set of outrageous claims against a political target. It then megaphones those claims and asks anyone at all connected with the target how on earth they can live with themselves.
So people are tarred by association with an imaginary enemy. Normal, mainstream opinion gets repackaged as “far-right” or some similar nonsense then companies and others are asked how they can bear to be associated with such toxic views.
The whole thing is a con trick. But what is interesting is why so few adults exist in our societies willing to stand up to it
DOUGLAS MURRAY
