RUTHFULLY YOURS

The British Conservative MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has just been caught up in the middle of a violent scuffle while giving a talk at a British university. This is the very same Rees-Mogg who’s been tipped to be the next leader of the British Conservative Party.

He’d been speaking at the University of Bristol’s Politics and International Relations Society when it was stormed by left-wing Red Guards.

One Bristol University student, a William Brown, said:

“These people in balaclavas and sunglasses started shouting, things like ‘Tory fascist’.

“They were quite intimidating actually.

“They were waving their hands around, shouting very loudly.”

This student also stated that a few punches were thrown.

The same student added:

“Jacob went to calm them down, I think he came out of it very well.

“He was encouraging them to speak, without shouting, saying something like ‘I’m happy to talk if you want’.”

One other student, a Sebastian Salton, said:

“It was interrupted by antifascists, I don’t think it was assault, I think people were trying to get him out.

“There was some negotiating.

“He went over to them and said ‘lets not shout them down,’ but they weren’t having any of it.

“They were shouting ‘racist, misogynist, homophobe, sexist’. They were talking about austerity.”

Will Smith, another student, said:

“There were people in balaclavas shouting ‘fascist scum’ and ‘sexist’.

“He was the first to approach them.”

Rees-Moog was stuck bang in the middle of all this. However, he said that he wasn’t “shaken or stirred” by the event. Rees-Moog also said that “they were just rather shouty”; though “all is well”. Despite that, some students described Rees-Moog as “looking shaken up” after the event.

So guess what. These typical students yelled “Tory fascist”, “fascist scum”, “sexist, “homophobe” and “Nazi” at an elected British MP. Now, isn’t that highly original? Not really. You’d think that these students would become a little self-conscious about using these left-wing cliches or soundbites. Though since the left-wing politics of student life is effectively a middle-class Rite of Passage, and because all rites of passage must take the same form, then these actions are hardly surprising.

Most left-wing students dress the same; act the same; and, more importantly, think the same.

As ever, the Marxist Left isn’t concerned with debate. It’s concerned with obliterating alternative political views. It often does that with violence or, sometimes, with the “no platform” policy which has often been in force in British universities. (It has only been applied to the Far Right — never to the Far Left.) This policy was established by the National Union of Students in the early 1970s; under the strong influence of the International Marxist Group (IMG) and the International Socialists (IS). It’s been used to ban a whole host of speakers, groups, and even academics.

What happened to Jacob Rees-Mogg has happened countless times in our universities since the 1960s. It’s been happening since the Left has been attempting to create (sometimes it’s been very successful) a “hegemony” in all these “Gramscian institutions”. All sorts of people have been the victim of left-wing violence, intolerance, and political conformity: academics, MPs, politicians, political parties, political and social groups, individuals, etc.

One example of all this which always stuck in mind dates back to 1978 and concerned the biologist, researcher, and naturalist, E.O. Wilson (who, politically, is a liberal). His case parallels, very strongly, the left-wing intolerance of Steven Pinker (also a liberal who’s apparently donated money to the Democratic Party), the Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology, Jordan Peterson, etc. today.

E.O. Wilson’s book, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, was published in 1975. It rekindled the ancient nature-vs.-nurture debate. Predictably, Wilson was accused of racism, misogyny, and even sympathy for eugenics.

Not surprisingly, this led to one incident in November 1978 in which E.O. Wilson was physically attacked (during one of his lectures) by members of the International Committee Against Racism, a front group for the Marxist Progressive Labor Party. Ironically, Wilson said:

“I believe… I was the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea.”

What Wilson said is false; as the example of scientists in the Soviet Union, for one, shows. In the 1960s, other American scientists and academics were also victims of left-wing violence and intolerance. (As can be seen in the ‘Political Scientists‘ chapter of Steven Pinker’s book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.) However, Wilson later said that he was very politically naïve at the time and had no idea that he’d be attacked by the virulent and intolerent Marxist Left.

So, bearing all that in mind, I wonder if professors, academics and other left-wing supporters (whether passive or active) of all this believe that it’s a good thing that so many students are politically conformist, intolerant, and violent?

Is it a good thing that being left-wing or a revolutionary socialist is a middle-class Rite of Passage for so many students between the ages of 18 and 22?

Is it a good thing that so many right-wing academics, groups, and individuals have their talks and seminars banned and have also even been the victims of physical violence?

Do they think it’s a good thing that many university departments are effectively Gramscian institutions and that this has been the case going back to the 1960s — for some 60 or so years?

All this is nothing new. It has a history.

In the Germany of the 1930s, Hitler Youth and other young Nazis ruled the roost in German universities. Indeed, all academics were Nazis, although some were only nominally so.

In the 1940s in the Soviet Union, all academics were Marxists/communists. And, again, young students often victimised all political dissidents — even the ones who weren’t political dissidents.

Under Chairman Mao (in the 1960s) we had the young Red Guards who terrorised the university campuses and enforced their political will on all students and indeed even on professors and academics.

And today (in the UK) we have Momentum, Social Justice Warriors, the Socialist Workers Party, etc. who, in their fight for tolerance, peace, and open-mindedness, indulge in extreme intolerance, violence, and closed-mindedness.

Yes, it all sounds terribly familiar. Yet to those deeply embedded in university environments (in which being left-wing — or at least liberal left — is de rigueur), it will all seem so terribly normal and acceptable. Of course it will!

Paul Austin Murphy is a writer on politics and philosophy.  He’s had articles published in The Conservative Online, Philosophy Now, New English Review, Human Events, Intellectual Conservative, Faith Freedom, Brenner Brief (Broadside News), etc.  His blogs are Paul Austin Murphy on Politics: http://theenglishdefenceleagueextra.blogspot.co.uk/. And Paul Austin Murphy’s Philosophy: http://paulaustinmurphypam.blogspot.co.uk/.  His Twitter account can be found here: https://twitter.com/PaulAustMurphy.