‘Cancel Culture’ is a phrase that is becoming more widespread by the day and, much like ‘social distancing’ and ‘support bubbles’, would have meant absolutely nothing just a few years ago. You’ve seen the common procedure: someone says something offensive, the offended party explain how they are offended and then there is a firestorm in the media about how people are silenced into submission by ravenous leftie liberal snowflake luvvie types who can’t bear ‘the real world’.
In fact, it’s nothing like that at all. In February, we were greeted with the announcement that the government are due to appoint a ‘free speech champion’ for higher education – ironically ensuring that contesting of free speech is restricted, with potential fines for the universities who do not follow suit.
This comes as a development of the endless narrative of right-wing views being silenced on university campuses across the country, which is as baffling as it is humorous. It would almost be too ridiculous to point out that we have had a Conservative government in power for eleven years now, so instead I’ll bring your attention to the fact that the Tories won the largest majority government in 2019 for a generation. Where on earth have conservative voices been silenced? On the university campus, a place in life where you are arguably the most likely to meet those who are not like you; the LGBT, BAME, disabled, working-class communities.
With that revelation, it is truly astonishing to see conservative voices complain at coming unstuck at higher education. The fundamental idea of conservatism is to keep things as they are or to adhere to tradition. So what do they expect? For the record, I must point out the fact that the ‘conservative views’ that are contested almost never mean lower taxes or a minimalist government.
It is the conservatism that sees Nigel Farage and our own Prime Minister Boris Johnson – two right-wing politicians who attended two of the most privileged private schools in the country, no less – regarded as men of the people types. Often it is deemed impossible by conservative voices that people might not want to hear those opinions. Yes, you always have the right to say your opinions, but people have every right to be offended or simply not listen.
It is prophetic for the early decades of a new century to experience this anxiety; where peoples’ place in life is thrown into question, as the still-fresh century finds its feet. We have seen a growing obsession with the Union Flag in recent weeks. Any talk of anything other than the potential positive effects of Brexit is akin to heresy. Even a statement of fact regarding British colonial history is now, in some circles, seen as altering history to suit a narrative.
However, it’s important to realise what voices are being heard. In the mainstream media, how often have you read a regular newspaper column by a trans person, or seen a lengthy television interview with someone of the disabled community that isn’t about disability? It is still arguably a very rare sight. The media is dominated by white, conservative voices, and it is only at university that those voices are challenged, or even drowned out by the many other issues that we have in our society. It was only through university that I learned about socialism, or working class literature , something I didn’t even know was a thing where I grew up.
It is the very nature of university, and higher education in general, to learn new viewpoints, understand others, and quite simply become more intelligent to the world around us. The biggest irony here is that it is not so much as conservative voices being silenced as much as they have all been heard before. Every right-wing argument has been said a hundred times, and barely ever changes. We all know your views on minorities, immigration, single parents, women, LGBTQ+ community and others; we grew up on The Sun providing us with right-wing views on its third page for years, Farage having the most appearances on BBC Question Time, and TV shows like ‘Little Britain’ taking aim at every minority possible. The struggle for conservative voices at university, therefore, it’s not that they are being silenced, but for the first time in a very privileged life, they are being challenged, and have no intellectual standing by which to be relevant unless it is to become offensive and cry of cancel culture when their voices are rejected.