Why they raged at JD Vance

The reason European politicians were so enraged and upset by JD Vance’s speech in Munich last Friday was that they simply weren’t used to being told the honest, awful truth – or being obliged to hear it. For decades, the big players in European politics could brush aside accusations that they had become authoritarian, undemocratic and censorious by dismissing such claims as the ravings of xenophobic and populist cranks. This time there was no excuse or escape. In Munich, they had no option but to listen to the vice-president of the most powerful country in the world tell them that censoring their citizens and cancelling elections are not the kinds of things ‘the good guys’ are meant to do.

In response, German defence minister Boris Pistorius barked that Vance’s comparison of parts of Europe with authoritarian regimes was ‘not acceptable’. Yet this came from a politician whose country’s police now regularly raid the homes of people for the ‘crime’ of saying things on social media that are, apparently, ‘not acceptable’. This includes mild insults aimed at government ministers.

Elsewhere, the chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, wound up matters on Sunday in a state of visible distress. Choking with emotion, and with tears in his eyes, he was unable even to finish his valedictory address.

Both in its content, and in the response to it, Vance’s speech exposed a detached and delusional mindset entrenched in Europe’s elite classes. Europe’s rulers have constantly traduced the results of elections they don’t like and have sought to silence the opinions of the ordinary man and woman. They routinely slander the general public as ignorant, bigoted and fickle.

But recent events have illustrated that it’s the elites who are better characterised as ignorant, bigoted and fickle. DEI is being rolled back with rapidity in corporations and trans ideology is receding even more tangibly, thanks largely to voters in America having rejected a Democratic Party in thrall to a woke doctrine divorced from reality. The rise of wokery has made it clear who the deluded ones are: it’s not the underlings, but rather the overlords.

Indeed, it’s the ruling classes who have been most easily swayed by fashionable politics. They act as hiveminds. They parrot voguish opinions and adopt hollow ‘luxury beliefs’ in order to fit in with their peers. Worse, they seek to punish those who don’t share their otherworldly ideology. They have cancelled elections and sought to overturn referendums. And then they have the temerity to call their opponents authoritarian.

It has not been the men and women in the street who have fallen for the most damaging delusions of our times. A deranged clerisy and an aloof political elite have had it their own way for too long. No wonder they’re mad at being told.

The road to hell

In an interview with the Telegraph at the weekend, historian Tom Holland sought to clarify his opinions on the grooming-gangs scandal, after his old comments resurfaced and attracted widespread criticism last month. In 2015, he wrote: ‘The true nightmare of Rotherham is that the motives of those who turned a blind eye, however monstrous the consequences, were indeed noble.’

On reflection today, Holland elaborates: ‘It’s true that when people push through policies that may seem morally grotesque, generally lurking behind it there’s a conviction that these policies are morally justified – though, to emphasise, that doesn’t mean I think they are morally justified.’

Few sensible people thought Holland was justifying the conduct of those who ignored or made excuses for the rape gangs. There will always be some unable or unwilling to understand what people are trying to say. What Holland was alluding to was an important matter about morality and our motives, and a persistent and deceptive assumption we have in regards to them.

This is the belief that having ‘noble motives’ is good in itself. It isn’t. Thinking ‘good’ thoughts does not necessarily lead to acts of good. To equate a positive stance with a positive consequence leads to a ‘something must be done’ mentality. Often doing what seems like the ‘right thing’ can actually make things worse. In the case of Rotherham and Rochdale, the noble motive of not wanting to be racist, appear racist or aggravate racism did indeed make things worse.

You would never trust a surgeon or doctor with mere ‘noble motives’. You would instead seek one possessed with intelligence and foresight. Above all, you’d hope they hold to the motto: ‘First do no harm.’

A new dark age of British TV

British television viewers are not a happy lot at the moment – and for good reason. The BAFTA Awards had barely been on for two minutes on Sunday evening before the host David Tennant, previously of Doctor Who fame, began issuing his smug reflections on the return to power of Donald Trump. Although it seemed to delight those assembled at the Royal Festival Hall, much of the audience at home was less impressed. ‘Bland’, ‘boring’ and ‘a shit show’, were common responses on X.

But the kind of robotic grandstanding we saw from Tennant is precisely what most of us now expect from actors. Perhaps anticipating yet another exhibition of progressive inanities from our thespians, many didn’t bother to tune into the BAFTAs in the first place. According to the Mirror, more people watched a repeat of Antiques Roadshow on BBC One on Sunday evening than they did the BAFTAs just before it in the schedule.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s Doctor Who is also losing its allure. ‘Doctor Who facing axe as lead star Ncuti Gatwa “quits” amid woeful rating and fans’ fury at woke storylines’, announced the Sun earlier this week. This will hardly surprise older fans of a show that’s been transformed into a didactic vehicle for hyper-liberal dogma.

Elsewhere, viewers have been responding with anger to ITV drama Unforgotten, which began its sixth series earlier this month. The opening episode featured a story about racism in academia, saintly asylum seekers and an ill-concealed dig at GB News. The latest series of BBC drama Waterloo Road featured a bizarre storyline in which a grandmother with dementia was painted as villainous for accidentally ‘deadnaming’ her transgender grandchild.

To those upset or offended by the state of British TV today, what else did you expect? Arts and entertainment have been among the biggest casualties of the Great Awokening of 2016. Most television dramas made after that date are unwatchable and, as a rule, best avoided.

Patrick West is a spiked columnist. His latest book, Get Over Yourself: Nietzsche For Our Times, is published by Societas.