‘liberals’ are just as trumpian as trump | thearticle

Intolerance, racism, harassment, inhumanity towards children, inciting violence and raging against the media – these are all things which many people instinctively associate with Donald

Trump. Yet, in recent months, it has been ‘liberals’ across the western world – many of whom are critics of Trump – who have displayed some of the most Trumpian characteristics. Take Prince

Harry, snapping at reporters and waging a war of words against the media. Or the photos of the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, impersonating people of colour. Or the CNN anchor,

Chris Cuomo, physically threatening a man for calling him a name. And don’t forget _The Guardian_ describing David Cameron’s feelings towards the death of his son as ‘privileged pain’. And

the latest example of Trumpian behaviour has been provided by a prominent critic of Trump, the actor Robert De Niro. It was reported yesterday that De Niro is being sued by a former employee

for harassment and discrimination, on the grounds of ‘hostile, intimidating and abusive’ behaviour. This is the same De Niro who recently said ‘fuck em’ about Fox News and has expressed the

desire to punch the 45th President of the United States in the face. Closer to home, this week the Conservative Party Conference has been greeted by the traditional madness. A few years

ago, there were smoke bombs and chants of ‘Tory scum’; this year, effigies were hung from a nearby bridge under a banner which read ‘130,000 KILLED UNDER TORY RULE/TIME TO LEVEL THE PLAYING

FIELD’. An image of the scene was shared by Momentum activists. Perhaps the perpetrators were inspired by the British rapper, Slowthai, who recently held up a dummy of Boris Johnson’s

severed head at a prize ceremony, or Sir Philip Pullman, who recently tweeted that he associated Boris with the words ‘rope’ and ‘nearest lamppost’. You get the idea. Of course, it’s no

secret that we are living through an angry and intolerant age, or that institutions of liberalism can be the most illiberal. The BBC has been at the centre of controversy in recent weeks

after one of its presenters, Naga Munchetty, was ruled to have breached the organisation’s editorial guidelines (for expressing an opinion live on air about Donald Trump), only for the head

of the BBC to overturn the ruling. Likewise, the Cambridge professor, Nigel Biggar, has written extensively about ‘Stalinist’ practices at British universities, including censorship and the

no-platforming of guest speakers. Amid the fire and fury of today’s culture wars, even liberals – especially liberals – have forgotten the fundamental creed of liberalism: defending the

right of others to say and think what they like, even whilst disapproving of what they say and think. Indeed, a recent YouGov poll found that a third of Labour voters would be ‘upset’ if

their child married a Conservative supporter. Then again, why wouldn’t they when Laura Piddock, a Labour MP considered to be a potential successor of Jeremy Corbyn, has said that she could

never be friends with a Tory. And it is ironic (and tragic) that the bigotry, small-mindedness and crassness which the Never Trumpers and ‘B******s to Brexit’ advocates abhor in their

opponents, they too have exhibited. Insults like ‘deplorables’ and ‘gammon’, which have been used to describe Brexit and Trump supporters, were coined by Hillary Clinton and a ‘left-leaning

Remainer’ (Ben Davis) respectively. Moral crusaders have always sought to paint the world as a fight between heroes and villains. But when it comes to the morals and behaviour of today’s

‘liberals’, there doesn’t seem to be much that separates them from Trump or other objects of their condemnation. As Friedrich Nietzsche once said: ‘He who fights with monsters should look to

it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you’. As the impeachment inquiry against Trump heats up and 2020 draws nearer,

the president’s opponents would do well to remember that they vacated the moral high ground long ago.