THE RISE OF LIBERAL FASCISM
The media: Paul Johnson deplores attempts to censor opinions on sex and race
BENITO Mussolini was a Marxist, once highly commended by Lenin, and the fascism he founded was essentially a Marx- ist heresy. Fascist Left and Fascist Right have much in common, especially their taste for street violence and their hectoring intolerance. Wearisome though it often is, civilised democrats have to be on perpetual stand-by to keep both at bay. To make life even more difficult for reasonable people, there is now a third threat, what I call liberal fascism. It is constituted not so much by liberals themselves as by the well-organised and increasingly aggressive pressure groups liberal triumphalism has spawned. Its two most dangerous man- ifestations, as I have pointed out before, are the race relations industry and the homosexual lobby, though there is a grow- ing number of other objectionable groups, such as the animal rights campaigners. What worries me is not so much the demands of these liberal fascists as the willingness of the rich and powerful, both people and institutions, to bow to them. There is the stench of cowardice in the air, as in the original fascist heyday of the Thirties.
Not so long ago, a well-organised mob of homo-yobs, assisted by militant lesbians and pro-abortionists, carried out an attack on St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the delightful neo-Gothic edifice on Fifth Ave- nue, which involved seizing the conse- crated hosts distributed at Holy Commun- ion and doing unspeakable things with them. There was a good deal of violence too. The authorities seem to have been paralysed by this outrage and the Gov- ernor of New York, Mario Cuomo, a Catholic by birth but a Democratic pres- idential hopeful by conviction, found him- self unable to condemn the act of sacrilege, since in his view the lobbies behind it were too important to offend. There has been a similar craven display in the case of Andy Rooney, a commentator on CBS's Sixty Minutes show. During an end-of-year news round-up last December he noted, rather obviously you might think, that 'many of the ills that kill us are self-induced' and listed 'too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions and cigarettes'. Again, all true enough and almost too banal to be worth saying. But the broad- cast produced an instant letter-and-protest campaign by the homosexual lobby, which demanded that the CBS sack Rooney. It is now the standard policy of the lobby to silence, whenever possible, any criticism of homosexuals, however true or justified.
CBS, though frightened, initially re- sisted the pressure to fire one of their stars, though it apparently encouraged Rooney to write an apologetic letter of explanation to a magazine written by and for homosex- uals, the Advocate. This contained the statement, 'Do I find the practice of one man introducing his penis into the anus of another repugnant? I do.' The lobby re- garded this expression of opinion, shared by the vast majority of men and women throughout the world, as unacceptable and so, it seems, did CBS. In the new climate of liberal fascism it is no longer permitted for any public or media figure to express distaste for any sexual practice with a vocal lobby behind it. Far worse, however, was
an alleged 'interview' with Rooney pub- lished in the Advocate, in which he was cunningly presented as criticising not only homosexuals but blacks too. Rooney im- mediately and hotly denied the words attributed to him. The young journalist concerned had not made a tape of the interview — most unusual these days. But CBS immediately suspended Rooney with- out pay for three months, a decision warmly approved by the New York Times, the liberals' bible. As the magazine Com- mentary, which has an account of the affair in its current issue, put it, 'for all practical purposes, CBS was taking the word of a neophyte reporter, who had been in jour- nalism for all of four months, over that of Rooney, who had worked for CBS for some forty years'.
I can't remember the broadcasting com- panies, or even the movie studios, sur- rendering quite so quickly in the days of Senator McCarthy. One wonders how CBS would have behaved had it been a station in Thirties Germany — I imagine Hitler and the SS would have had no cause for complaint. As it happens, there was a good deal of popular protest about its treatment of Rooney and, more important in the Corporation's eyes, a drop in the ratings. So Rooney was brought back long before his suspension period was up. But he was forced to say he was sorry he had caused distress to the homosexual community. In any case the lobby had made its point anyone who criticises their perverted form of sex can expect big trouble and had better keep his or her mouth shut.
Unless liberal fascism is resisted, starting from now, it is only a matter of time before the same system of censorship is imposed here. It will, needless to say, be the work of precisely those people who complain that the Government's ban on IRA terror- ists, masquerading as Sinn Fein politicians, appearing on British television screens to advocate mass-murder, is a gross denial of freedom of speech. It would not at all surprise me if an incoming Labour govern- ment makes it actually unlawful to criticise homosexual practices, since the homo- lobby is now well dug into the party at every level. As it is, the victory of the race relations industry in suppressing debate on immigration is now more or less complete. The recent treatment of Norman Tebbit, one of the few MPs who still has the courage to challenge the censors, is signifi- cant. I don't at all agree with Tebbit on Hong Kong, or even with his remark about the 'cricket test'. But it was a perfectly fair comment on an issue which passionately concerns the public and on which free discussion is essential. Yet one Labour MP immediately demanded his prosecution and much of the press comment has been unconscionable. The incident shows how deeply the roots of liberal fascism have penetrated our tolerant soil, and I for one am determined to grub them up. Who is with me?
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