I bought this book, and read it alongside, Rakib Ehsan’s BEYOND GRIEVANCE. In terms of key messages, there is an amazing degree of commonality between the two. They are both critical of the cult of victimhood. They both attack the undermining of democracy that manifested itself in desperate attempts to undermine the result of the EU referendum. Neither has anything good to say about Black Lives Matter ; in fact, O’Neill observes that Martin Luther King’s desire to move from racism to colour-blindness would itself be seen as racist today and would result in de-platforming. But whilst Ehsan’s book focuses mainly around race, O’Neill’s covers a wider spectrum and is all the better for doing so.
O’Neill’s analysis of the current mania for looking for “hate speech” at every opportunity is first class and his choice of examples memorable. He rightly points out that decades of progress on gay rights is being undone by the transgender movement, which now regards homosexuality as “transphobic bigotry”. He backs up his argument by stating factually that the now closed Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic saw many young people who claimed to be gender-dysphoric but in reality were gay, and sent them on the ghastly transgender path.
Like Ehsan in BEYOND GRIEVANCE, O’Neill is critical of the total hypocrisy evident in the corrosive 2020s disease of identitariansim. It’s self-evident in the attitude of those who call for race-based “safe spaces” whilst advocating that biological males who identify as female should be allowed to enter very necessary and hard-won women-only safe spaces. Likewise, there’s no shortage of hypocrisy in the “be kind” lobby, the same lobby that called for older voters (meaning what precisely?) to be banned from voting and wished an early grave on Brexiteers. He documents extensively the racial slurs lobbed by mainly white “liberals” at prominent public figures of black African or Caribbean origin who dare to defy the identitarians’ favourite narrative. He mentions Professor Tony Sewell, author of the Sewell Report on Racial Disparity, being called a “house Negro” and Sir Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, being called an “Uncle Tom.” Rakib Ehsan recalls in BEYOND GRIEVANCE how he has been subject to a similar slur not previously heard, namely “Tandoori Mosley.” Whoever thinks up these slurs can’t have much to do.
O’Neill’s criticism of “epistocracy” – rule by those who think they know it all – is predictably scathing and in fact so close to that voiced by Ehsan in BEYOND GRIEVANCE that if you have read the two books in succession, you suspect that the two authors collaborated. But both are spot on and illustrate their criticisms convincingly. One particularly disturbing aspect of “epistocratic” rule that we are seeing increasingly is censorship. O’Neill rightly casts doubt on the ability of “epistocrats” to target it appropriately. He says, “Once you let censorship off its leash, there is no stopping it.” Considering that there has been at least once case of a train driver being disciplined for using the phrase “ladies and gentlemen,” which is now apparently “transphobic hate speech,” O’Neill can hardly be accused of exaggerating.
The UK is in desperate need of a return to sanity, democracy, free speech and commonsense, crucial attributes of a successful nation that a new generation of so-called “liberals” appears to hate. As a thoroughly researched and readable contribution to the debate that we must have if we are to reclaim these values, O’Neill’s book passes with distinction. I give it five well-deserved stars.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Frequently bought together
This item: A Heretic's Manifesto: Essays on the Unsayable
£12.18
In stock
+
£9.78
In stock
+
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your basket.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start againPage 1 of 1
Top reviews from other countries
Wagner Leal Arienti
Leitura para quem está incorformado com a nova forma de censura.
Reviewed in Brazil on 2 September 2023
Howard F. Jaeckel
In this Era of Insanity, Heresy is Necessary
Reviewed in the United States on 30 June 2023Lottie
Essential reading in these Orwellian times
Reviewed in Germany on 15 September 2023
