Are You An Enemy Of Democracy?

Probably you think not. Unfortunately, a lot of ugly people and even uglier organisations think otherwise. Skeptical? Okay, let’s try a little test.

Do you believe a woman is an adult human female? Thirty or even ten years ago that would have sounded like a silly question, or perhaps one suitably phrased for a teacher to ask a young child. Today, would you believe it is hate speech? 

That’s right. In September 2018, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull put up a billboard bearing that definition in Liverpool. It was removed shortly after Dr Adrian Harrop complained about it, saying it was a “symbol that makes transgender people feel unsafe”.

Three years later the same Dr Harrop had his medical licence suspended for posting offensive messages about women on Twitter. Hmm, wonder who one of those women was.

Have you ever used a hate symbol? Before you answer no, you should be aware that there are more of these than you think, and some are, shall we say, creative?

Here are a few of them, courtesy of the ADL:

The number 18. Yes, seriously. Among other things it is said to stand for Adolf Hitler, the logic being A the first letter of the alphabet and H being the eighth letter, though if you ask Johnny Depp he will probably tell you it means Amber Heard.

The number 88 can also mean Hitler, “Heil Hitler!”. Sigh.

9% – yes, 9 percent. According to the ADL it means the percentage of the world’s population that is said to be white. 

Bowlcut – unless you are a barber you may not realise this is a haircut. Yes,  no misprint, a regular haircut is a hate symbol, and if you have this particular haircut, you are almost certainly an enemy of democracy.  The logic behind this is that mass murderer Dylann Roof was sporting it when he killed 9 black worshippers in a South Carolina Church on June 17, 2015.  Hmm, wonder what Paul McCartney thinks of that. The ADL’s database of hate symbols runs to 11 webpages; it also includes Pepe The Frog and the okay hand symbol, although it warns caution must be used when interpreting this latter.

At the bottom of each page the ADL asks “Are we missing something?” Common sense, perhaps?

If the ADL is not to be taken seriously, most people expect more from government agencies, especially those that combat crime as part of their remit. So it should come as at least a mild surprise that the FBI has an even more comprehensive Internet watch list. Recently, the Daily Mail published what is believed to be the full list. It includes words/phrases like assassination, dirty bomb, riot, and infection. The latter means every doctor in the world must now be on its watch list.

Next we have a couple of classic Kafka traps.

If you don’t like Israel, perhaps because of how it treats the Palestinians, you can only be an anti-Semite, while if you support Israel, only a fascist would do that.

Then there is the issue of free speech. Only a fascist would demand free speech, right? But if you choose not to exercise it, remember that white silence is violence. And if you aren’t white, no pass for you either, or did you forget that Larry Elder is the black face of white supremacy?

One more will suffice, are you a conspiracy theorist? because if you believe in conspiracies you can only be an enemy of democracy, so don’t forget :

Covid-19 is of natural origin

the election wasn’t stolen

we never spied on Donald  Trump.

Russian collusion? Yes, you can believe that. Only an enemy of democracy wouldn’t.