Woke ‘cancel culture’ is a form of bullying and ‘no platforming’ an attack on free speech, pupils will be taught

British students will be told that ‘cancel culture’ is not part of a ‘tolerant and free society’

Students will learn that people with controversial opinions should be respected. It comes as some mainstream speakers have been blocked from speaking at unis

Pupils will be taught that ‘cancel culture’ is a form of bullying and ‘no platforming’ an attack on our freedoms.

As part of the Government’s drive to protect freedom of speech, secondary school students will learn that people with controversial opinions should be respected.

In Department for Education training manuals, teachers are instructed to tell pupils that the ‘cancel culture’ which has taken root at many universities – where individuals call for a boycott of a person or company whose views they don’t agree with, in the hope they lose their job or clients – is not part of a ‘tolerant and free society’.

The move appears to be a direct response to incidents where mainstream speakers, including former home secretary Amber Rudd, have been blocked from speaking at universities by political opponents.

The comments are part of a slide presentation in a module on ‘respectful relationships’, as part of the new relationships and sex education curriculum beginning this year.

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Incorrect UFC fighter gets a pass

Because the whole UFC organization is pro-Trump (?)

Predictably, the aftermath of Covington’s victory has been about everything but his superlative performance inside the cage. In the post-fight interviews that followed the bout, the 32-year old deliberately sought to sow controversy by making a series of patently xenophobic and bigoted statements more suited to an alt-right rally than an ESPN studio.

On the post-fight ESPN show, he mocked Nigerian born Usman by asking if he had gotten a message from his “tribe” via “smoke signals” and then doubled down at the press conference on pre-fight comments he had made accusing Woodley of being a domestic terrorist sympathizer by supporting the Black Lives Matter organization. In between, he labeled NBA great and part-time progressive activist LeBron James a “spineless coward,” accused Woodley of “hating America” and took a short phone call from President Donald Trump, who effusively expressed his support for Covington.

UFC President Dana White said, when asked for comment on Covington’s extreme rhetoric.

“One of the things we’ve never done here at the UFC is stop people from expressing how they feel about certain things, inside or outside the Octagon, even if it’s me, if it’s about me,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “Who’s more about free speech than we are? We literally let our people do or say whatever it is they do. It’s normal.”

However, the UFC isn’t pro-free speech, and there’s a laundry list of case studies that attest to this. From the promotional guidelines which provide that fighters may face financial penalties for engaging in “inappropriate physical, verbal and online behavior” to the UFC’s sweeping liability waiver—it was rolled out earlier this year—that purported to prohibit fighters and other event attendees, including reporters, from criticizing its COVID-19 protocols under threat of financial sanctions, the promotion has always maintained and enforced its right to police what its athletes do and say outside the Octagon.

Indeed, the UFC is quite comfortable policing athlete’s speech, and it is more than capable of telling Covington to tone it down.

That it is choosing not to do this is likely a reflection of two things: an assessment that Covington’s rhetoric won’t endanger and may in fact enhance its commercial interests, and because he has framed his invective as a political promotion for Trump, an incumbent president White and, by extension, the UFC have thrown their full weight behind in the leadup to the 2020 election. It says everything that White feels the need to lie about that.

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