If you haven’t heard, Britain has a serious political correctness problem. In fact, it’s a full-blown epidemic of lunacy, and coupled with an immigration influx that has outpaced and dumbfounded Western European politicians since they began accepting unfettered members of former colonies post-WWII, experts have already declared European values and culture dead on arrival.
Long-ago resigned to the reality that the religious roots, pigmentation, and cultural mores that have defined Europe’s distinct nations for centuries are going to be lost to replacement religions and customs, Europe’s ‘leaders’ are just learning how to deal. Part of that coping process means discouraging radicalization – politely and non-offensively, of course.
The ‘Empire strikes back’ effect by which descendants of former European colonies return the conqueror’s favor has meant that many immigrants have felt little pressure to assimilate to the spectrum of European cultures. As a result, Europe has been largely lost, its native descendants replaced by those who look and act nothing like their European ancestors. Certain levels of immigration has always been healthy, but what Europe has experienced for the past few decades is not mere immigration – it’s large-scale replacement.
Europe’s leadership has proven unwilling or unable to stanch the unsustainable flow of migrants who are attracted to the region’s minimum wages and welcoming embrace, even in the worst of times. Politicians’ own ineffectiveness has led them to take a defensive posture against an increasingly outraged public, whose sentiments are reflected clearly in polls routinely reporting upwards of half, and as many as three-quarters of these populations believe immigration levels have long been detrimentally high. Instead of acting to legislate the will of the people, politicians have partnered with the media to categorize any inkling of criticism for immigration policy as unbridled bigotry.
This speech and thought-stifling charge permeates the culture, causing a widespread, icy chill on debate over what is best for the future of Europe. It’s telling that even programs implemented in the name of rooting out terrorism have been crippled by the top-down mandates that tolerance and political correctness supersede common sense and true problem solving, which in the case of terror prevention means saving lives.
A recent report from the U.K.-based publication The Sunday Times found that 95% of Britain’s de-radicalization programs are ineffective, with their findings based on an examination of 33 programs across the country conducted by Britain’s partially government-funded Behavioral Insights Team (BIT). The de-radicalization programs are part of schools, sports clubs, youth centers, and English language classes and were created as part of a 2011 initiative designed to discourage at-risk youth from becoming terrorists.
The primary reason for the failure of most of the vast majority of these programs, according to the Times, can essentially be boiled down to politically correct attitudes. Fear, quite simply, of having difficult conversations.
A fear that is quite legitimate, in fact, and based in the likelihood that such conversations would elicit charges of racism, or the feelings of guilt that have been programmed into anyone who even suggests a culture, religion, or non-European set of values may in some way contribute to radicalization.
‘…facilitators were uncomfortable dealing with sensitive topics and would often refuse to engage if they were brought up. BIT found that teachers in particular were afraid to bring up matters of race and religion with their students without appearing discriminatory, often causing them to refuse to talk about these topics entirely.’ (The Sunday Times)
You can’t blame the teachers. Decades of stringent protectionism over outrageously liberal immigration policies have made it abundantly clear that even pointing out the truth can lead to firing, professional blackballing, and the worst kind of notoriety one can experience in the internet age.
Many Brits remember the case of Ray Honeyford, a respected headmaster who, in 1984, had the audacity to write an article evoking questions about whether the unabated influx of immigrants bringing their own customs and culture was the best idea for Britain, and Europe more broadly. It was a critique based on his own observations and experiences as an educator in a school of 90% immigrant families.
After being suspended, appealing to the high court, returning to work, and facing harassment from critics accusing him of being a racist, Honeyford retired early – he had no other choice. He would never work again as a teacher. While this, and the more recent case of Tommy Robinson represent the worst of what can happen to those who question European immigration practices, political correctness has an even more widespread effect, causing everybody to handle the topic as if it were the most fragile of eggs.
It’s this fear-based culture of intolerant tolerance that renders the complete and utter failure of British efforts to discourage radicalization unsurprising. Chalk it up to the slippery slope of multiculturalism, on which Europe is now headed downhill at a 90-degree angle.
Unsurprisingly, the two programs considered successes were "one defying political correctness and tackling difficult issues head-on and the other directly addressing extremism in religious [Islamic] texts,” according to the Times.
This proves that it’s not the prevailing attitudes dictating the European policies of the present and recent past that provide the utopian melting pot they profess to. In fact, the opposite is true, with hard truths and critical evaluation of cultural differences and their relative value producing the most desirable results.
Unfortunately, the fact remains that 31 of the 33 programs did fail, an outcome that, considering the topic at hand, is grimly indicative of Europe’s recent past, present, and future.
