Is there life on Mars?

Nobody knows if there is or ever was life on Mars. If there is, it is unlikely to look like us; if there was, it would have been a pretty pointless existence – according to scientists, the planet’s atmosphere would make it impossible to hold a conversation. Apparently, sound would travel much more slowly and, instead of making a bee-line for your ear hole, would scatter off in all directions. Really? Instead of Mars, why don’t researchers look a little closer to home? How about unravelling the mysteries of why it is impossible to hold a conversation with—take your pick—Remainers, Scottish Nationalists, the Covid orthodox, hunt saboteurs, pro-choicers, trans activists or, generally speaking, any one of the many social justice warriors who now plague the public square. All they seem capable of, when you utter something they deem offensive (and it doesn’t take long), is to shout at you through the one way glass of the Overton window which, if they had their way, would be closed and nailed shut.

I recently upset the hunt saboteurs and fox lovers with a slightly tongue in cheek piece in Country Squire Magazine lamenting the loss of our team of ducks to a fox which ripped them apart, apparently for a bit of fox fun. Now I am every kind of ‘dickhead’, ‘bellend’ and ‘cockwomble’ under the sun. My Twitter comments nearly overheated without a single comment that merely addressed the issue. I am quite happy to consider that we may be able to live in harmony with urban foxes but I’m not going to discuss it with someone who adds ‘c**t’ to his or her—inevitably pseudonymous—Twitter comment. I refused to react in kind and pinned a tweet to that effect. Well, that fixed things…not! So, I took the extraordinary step of protecting my account for a while just to give my followers an opportunity to comment on tweets without me losing their comments amid the torrent of abuse. I have just unprotected the account so let’s hope things have calmed down a bit.

The fox hunting one was an exception both for its volume and vehemence. It was closely followed in ferocity by a Twitter pile on brought about when I dared to suggest in the early days of the lockdown that we may be exaggerating the likely effects of Covid-19. A view which has been amply and repeatedly vindicated since. The local newspaper brought this to the attention of the Chief Executive of our city council who tweeted me saying that, as a professor of nursing, I ought to know better. As if being both a nurse and a professor meant that I should lose my critical faculties and my right to free speech at the same time. The tweet went viral as did the deluge of anonymous insults copying in my employers and asking them to ‘have a word’ and for me to ‘question my position’. Inevitably I was called to account, but a shot across the bows from Toby Young of the Free Speech Union held any further proceedings at bay. I was able to engage the Chief Executive by email and he seemed like a reasonable chap, but any attempt to engage the rest of my detractors was either ignored or got a one word reply, for example, ‘c**t’. These really are delightful people.

I find that it is just the same, with very few exceptions, with any of the social justice warriors listed above. They cannot accept, on the one hand, that anyone has a different view from them and, on the other hand, that we don’t actually mind them having and expressing a different view to ours. Those of us who believe in free speech happily share our opinions in the expectation that they will be contradicted. But our detractors are not happy with that and clearly derive great satisfaction from trying to close us down. They know that in so doing they will direct further opprobrium towards us when their equally narrow-minded snowflake pals who simply sit about waiting to be offended join in. I personally find nothing more offensive than the thought of a defenceless baby in the womb being chopped up and hoovered out or chemically poisoned for anyone’s convenience. I know that other people hold different views and, while I do not respect their views, I respect them. Not so the other way round. The issue quickly moves towards women’s rights and personal choice, and one becomes every kind of misogynist and oppressor of poor women imaginable.

I don’t expect the situation will get better any time soon and few of us, even those of us who are willing to trade punches with our detractors, can claim it has no effect. Of course, the more flak you are receiving, the closer you are getting to the target and your words are clearly getting through. But I know people who simply will not express their views in any forum and who even ask people like me why we bother. I can understand their reluctance to speak out; people have jobs to hold down, families to feed and offending the hyper-offendable can have serious consequences. If you are not convinced, check the newsletters page on the Free Speech Union website. However, while the woke warriors want the public square all to themselves and to live happily forever in their echo chamber, we must not allow that to happen.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.