‘Tolerance’ is the new totalitarianism
[June 16, 2017] It’s been fun learning over the past week or so that I am an extremist. I hadn’t previously considered myself to be one, but it’s now been pointed out so many times over the past few days, by certain young left-leaning folks, that I can no longer be in any doubt. I assume that I, along with other like-minded people, must now wait for the powers-that-be to start issuing little badges with the letter “E”, to warn others that there are dangerous people with unwholesome views in their midst.
Until recently, I’d sort of thought of extremists as being those bearded head-chopper chaps with their black flags, or radical anarchist types intent on bringing down the State. Compared to them, I’m a fantastically dull extremist. Happily married for 17 years; raising six fairly contented children; held down jobs since leaving university 20-odd years ago; never been in trouble with the law; taxes paid into the Treasury’s redistribution scheme; an elder in a local Anglican church; no links to any terrorist organisations; good relations with neighbours; and by and large, pretty relaxed and content with my lot.
But according to Napoleon’s puppies (I’ll explain that in a moment), none of this counts for diddly squat, and I am indeed to be regarded on a par with chaps heading out for an extended holiday in one of those “training camps” in David Cameron’s New Libya.
You might say that it was quite by accident that I found it out. Had Theresa May not taken the inexplicably stupid decision to hold an election shortly before beginning the process of negotiating our way out of the EU, I might never have known. But after her gamble went splat, and she was forced into begging the DUP to bail her out, the grin which had been slowly spreading over the faces of some of the more mathematically challenged citizens during the election night (who still seem to think that 262 seats get you into government), soon started to be turned into a rather menacing scowl.