Nadine Dorries has raised her head above the Culture Wars parapets, rather late. She said "people have become afraid to say what they think for fear of being "cancelled", and that left-wing activists have "hijacked" social media.
She's obviously mistaken; I've never seen so many people on social media being unafraid to say the most hideous things. What they don't like is having their views challenged sensibly, honestly and constructively. That's not being cancelled; it's being called out.
They are perhaps afraid that what they would previously have got away with saying in the privacy of the snug down at the pub, is there for all the world to see on social media, attracting far more attention and condemnation by those with a lot more humanity.
She also said she doesn't agree with removing statues and other memorials connected to the slave trade and other aspects of history, such as the Bank of England's removal of paintings and busts of past governors and directors. "You can't, with this whole cancel culture, wipe it all out like it didn't happen and pretend it didn't exist," she said. "You can't wipe away our history, either the good or the bad."
It's not pretending it didn't happen - the whole point of a statue is to honour the person the statue represents. Who would want to honour a slave trader? Is Germany Woke for demolishing every single statue of Hitler, who engaged in genocide in a systemic manner? Is Zimbabwe Woke for changing the name of Rhodesia? It doesn't eradicate them from history at all - it merely doesn't honour them.
The Culture War warriors rant against the National Trust for, of all things, adding to the history of National Trust properties and call it rewriting history. You couldn't make it up. OK, lets admire the country piles, but totally ignore and overlook the source of the money that funded their construction - which is obviously what they want. It's a denial of history.
The rewriting history trope has been thoroughly debunked for what it is; a last ditch, intellectually bankrupt and misguided attempt to normalise the indefensible, but trust Dorries to jump on that particular bandwagon after it has already left its trailer park and been scrapped.
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