Rowan Atkinson: "'Cancel culture' is like a medieval mob looking for someone to burn"

Oh but there's no such thing as cancel culture, you know.

In an extended interview with the UK's Radio Times, the celebrated British actor and comic criticised social media’s tendency to divide and silence public debate, saying: "It becomes a case of either you're with us or against us. And if you're against us, you deserve to be cancelled."

Atkinson, who wrote and starred in the 1980s and 90s sitcoms Blackadder and Mr Bean, has strongly campaigned in support of free speech and open debate.

In 2005 he opposed the addition of hate speech laws in the British parliament's Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. And in 2009 he argued against the introduction of homophobic hate speech clauses into UK law.

More recently, in August last year, Atkinson drew heavy criticism from British woke warriors and online trolls after criticising Scotland’s controversial hate crimes bill, arguing it "risked stifling freedom of expression, and the ability to articulate or criticise religious and other beliefs".

"The problem we have online is that an algorithm decides what we want to see, which ends up creating a simplistic, binary view of society," Atkinson said. "It's important that we’re exposed to a wide spectrum of opinion."

Twitter #CancelMobs responded in two predictable ways:

1, denying that there is any such thing as #CancelCulture.

2, demanding that Rowan Atkinson be #Cancelled for talking about #CancelCulture.

Logic and consistency and the rules of reasoned discourse are oppressive tools of the white patriarchy so SJWs are not bound by them.

posted by Ace at 04:16 PM

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