Mainstream discourse around the world is now heavily policed with the aim of protecting people from being offended by other people’s opinions. This is a significant restriction on freedom of speech.
One consequence of this ‘cleaning’ is that discussion has migrated to social media where it quickly degenerates into name-calling, shaming or the outright rejection of whole points of view. People see through political lenses, and ignore the need for evidence, proof and the threading of topics. Dialogue has been venomized, and has largely ceased to be meaningful.
Most importantly, political leaders and international bodies now adhere to political correctness – to respect people’s feelings and their cultural differences. Not surprisingly this is preventing solutions to be found to global problems including global warming and terrorism. Let me give a specific example.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report on Violent Extremism identifies poverty, climate change, migration and competition for resources as the root causes of Islamic extremism. But this is wrong. The causes of Islamic fundamentalism and jihadism are cultural and scholarly – emanations from Islamic doctrine fed to impressionable minds at the behest of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar through scholarships and charitable projects.
Why does the UNDP report mention all the secondary factors while failing to mention this primary factor? For fear of offending the governments in question. It is a matter of self-censorship – to display respect, diplomacy and courtesy in the name of political correctness.
So the Taliban fly by Qatar Airways to discuss aid, development and peace with Pakistan, and the global media treat them like respected elders. But in reality these same men have locked half their own population into the 7th century.
Freedom of speech is being defeated around the world due to the demand that language be polite, palatable and correct.
By Mubarak Bala
Writing from Germany