‘Woke’ Archbishop of Canterbury condemns use of ‘snowflake,’ defends speech restrictions

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Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, gave justifications to social restrictions on free speech and slammed the use of terms like “snowflake,” which he says offends “younger generations.”

In a speech addressing the House of Lords on Friday, Welby said that young people who are concerned about the “safety and protection of minorities” are more willing to demand “for restrictions on speech” to protect those minority groups.

“We hear much nonsense of the snowflake generation who seek safety,” he said. “Younger generations are more concerned than their older counterparts about the safety and protection of minorities and more willing to call for restrictions on speech to achieve this.”

“We need to keep a sense of perspective here. No-platforming is not a new phenomenon and there is evidence to suggest that it is very limited,” he insisted. “The way I can remember minorities being addressed 40 to 50 years ago shows that more concern about safety then would have been a good thing.”

“Freedom of speech sometimes means freedom for the powerful to bully and abuse,” Welby said.

Welby made his remarks to address concerns over wokeness and the “diversity, equity, and inclusion”-based efforts to impede free speech in the public space.

“When we speak of freedom of speech, we create two false binaries,” Welby continued. “First, we set freedom of speech against safety. Freedom demands safety — there is no freedom in acting out of fear — and safety, in turn, demands freedom. Also, there is no conflict between freedom and community; they are absolutely interdependent.” 

The arguments levied by the archbishop are the same ones used by the woke mob to justify censorship of voices not in alignment with the progressive left, essentially arguing that dissent is a form of violence that induces trauma.

The archbishop cited the BBC as an example of “true freedom of speech,” although he added that the state-run media organization does sometimes “get things wrong.”

Neon Nettle reported that the “woke” archbishop has issued reminders that “Jesus was Middle Eastern, not white,” and that the Christian deity should not be referred to with either masculine or feminine labels. He also condemned politicians who ignore climate change, insisting that they would be held in worse regard than politicians who appeased Hitler by future generations.

Welby’s remarks were supported and dissented by a number of other Lords and Ladies in the House of Lords. In particular, Baroness Anne Jenkin of Kennington expressed her concerns over the “troubling increase in intolerance and the so-called cancel culture.”

Citing the efforts by transgender activists and their allies to silence women like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and MPs Rosie Duffield and Joanna Cherry, among many others,

Jenkin described how female academics, lawmakers and other outspoken women have been forced to take legal action to protect not only their livelihoods but their reputations after being smeared as “transphobes.”

These women have been intimidated, harassed and bullied for simply expressing opinions that everyone once took for granted: that women are adult human females, and that biological sex matters. Professor Kathleen Stock has been hounded out of her job at Sussex University for her belief that biological sex is binary and immutable — a belief that I would call a scientific fact and a fact of life. Professor Stock was accused of making trans people feel unsafe. Why should scientific facts make anyone feel unsafe?

…

Criticism of gender identity ideology is not an attack on trans people. It is not transphobic to support women’s rights. Trans people such as Debbie Hayton make this very clear. Hayton has described it as an authoritarian, quasi-religious cult — one where you must believe or be thrown out. As she rightly points out, I am an apostate. We must do better for Dr. Hayton, Professor Stock and anyone willing to stand against an ideology. The rights of women and the safeguarding of children may depend on it.

As Rebel News reported in late October, Prof. Kathleen Stock resigned following years of intimidation and harassment by transgender activists at Sussex University. Her resignation prompted an outpouring of support from academics across British institutions, turning it into a landmark issue that has become emblematic of woke culture.