Discrimination in the UK Police Force
On August 13, a UK employment judge ruled that three white police officers had been unjustly overlooked for promotion to the rank of detective inspector in favor of an Asian woman. This decision was made amidst a wave of anti-immigrant riots that led to a government-ordered police crackdown on both the rioters and those accused of inciting violence through social media posts.
Free Speech and Censorship
In an article in the Telegraph, Michael Deacon questioned whether certain Labour members of parliament should also face prosecution for their misleading historical social media posts. However, this is unlikely to happen. In fact, attempts to censor public speech have become so normalized that Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner for the internal market, felt confident enough to interfere in the US presidential election. He wrote a letter to Elon Musk, threatening regulatory action over potentially harmful comments made during an interview with Donald Trump.
The Impact of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter
In early 2020, Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic. This led to the imposition of lockdown restrictions and mask mandates in countries around the world, contrary to the existing scientific consensus on managing influenza pandemics. By the end of the year, vaccines had been developed and were being distributed at an unprecedented pace. Also in 2020, the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer sparked Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and riots across the US and other Western countries.
Two-Tier Policing and Public Health Policies
During this time, we saw the emergence of two-tier policing and public health policies. Anti-lockdown protesters were met with harsh penalties and brutal crackdowns, while BLM protests were deemed beneficial for public health. Many doctors argued that racism is a major public health concern and that protest is a powerful public health intervention because it can help address and eliminate forms of inequality. In June 2020, over 1,000 US healthcare professionals signed an open letter supporting this view.
Climate Change and Censorship
Before Covid and the widespread promotion of vaccines, the idea that "the science is settled" had become deeply ingrained in public debates and policies on climate change and the pursuit of net zero. However, this consensus was maintained through censorship and coercion, with climate skeptics and contrarians being excluded from public discourse and labeled as climate deniers.
Erosion of Public Trust
This article focuses not so much on the fragmentation of Western societies into antagonistic ethnic groups, but on the erosion of public trust in the medical profession due to Covid-related authoritarianism and in the government and media due to two-tier governance. This governance appears to be more lenient towards actions by self-critical Westerners while being harsh on those who wish to preserve Western indigenous culture. Both are examples of ruling elites indulging their inner totalitarianism to define the permissible boundaries of thought, speech, and behavior by individuals and businesses.
Bottom Line
The erosion of public trust in the medical profession, government, and media due to two-tier governance and Covid authoritarianism is a concerning trend. It raises important questions about the role of ruling elites in defining the boundaries of individual and corporate behavior and the impact of censorship on public discourse and policy. What are your thoughts on this issue? Share this article with your friends and sign up for the Daily Briefing, which is delivered every day at 6pm.
