Two new articles over at The What & The Why. The first, written Monday midnight, was a response to Donald Trump's nonsense and, for the record, was then republished over at Capx. The second was a response (and cartoon) to people's response to Donald Trump's nonsense.
As is usual, I'm writing my own blog straight to the screen. I need to get other things written today and can't spend too much time phrasing things well here.
What I will say about the Donald Trump outrage is how poorly liberals have emerged. In the past, I've been accused of being a liberal myself and, in some senses, I'm happy with the label. I'm all for gun control in the US and I'm critical of austerity here in the UK. I'm also opposed to Trump, though I try to look on him without allowing my emotions to cloud the issue. He is wrong on so many things but the best way to respond isn't to demand that he be banned from the UK or that honorary degrees be stripped from him. For want of a better word, that all seems so damn childish.
I got into a protracted Twitter conversation today in which I probably didn't make myself clear. I worry that people see my defence of freedom of speech as being a defence of Trump. Of course, it must be that to some degree because it is his speech that would be restricted if the bans came into force. Yet I am no defender of Trump's ideas, merely his right to express his point of view. Some people seem to find that difficult to understand.
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