The Land That Invented Cancel Culture

Ireland’s Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill of 2022 is a masterpiece of evasive intrusion. Free speech is not defined in it, but merely proclaimed in a headline to be a worthy objective, even though free speech has virtually vanished in Ireland. The Irish did not invent the term “cancel culture”, just the practice, as in “boycott”, which has been a regular fate for people with unpopular opinions.

This report appears in the latest Quadrant.
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“Unpopular” means “unacceptable”, as defined by the ethos of the ruling caste, which once upon a time was the Catholic Church, and is now the post-Christian, hard-line, doctrinaire liberal-left. The bishops of yore were occasionally obliged to consult the Ten Commandments. But Ireland’s liberal-left merely take guidance from those deathless moral compasses, their feelings. There is no freedom of speech for those of whom they disapprove.

So, Ireland, having…