One of the the things about living in a free country is that we have to accept that some things will offend us. By the same token, within the boundaries of the law, we have the right to offend others. In recent times, we have heard plenty of offensive things being said.
Tyson Fury’s Old Testament inspired and largely incoherent rants about homosexuality, paedophilia, the place of women in society and the end of days do him few favours, but if he has not broken the law then we need to treat his comments with the contempt they deserve. And when presidential candidate Donald Trump attacks an entire religion, I feel much the same way. But the thing about people saying stupid things is simple: people are allowed to say things that are stupid.
Tyson Fury is the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. His job in life is to render his opponent unconscious. He is not a role model. Far from it, he is a big man who hits people. Personally, I do not share his view that a woman’s place is in the kitchen or on her back but pig ignorant sexism and bigotry is not quite illegal just yet. And by making his ignorance so well known, he has done his argument, such as it is, no good at all. In the eyes of many, the man makes himself out to be the buffoon we didn’t realise he was. He had the opportunity to become a national sporting hero and instead has chosen to become that gobby twat who thinks gay people and paedophiles are exactly the same thing. In his world, that’s what God has taught him.
Donald Trump was regarded as a joke figure long before his anti-muslim rant to everyone except a large number of Republican voters in America who, it seems likely, will propel him into a run off against the democrat candidate Hillary Clinton. Again, he says all manner of stupid things and the more he says them, the more popular he gets. We cannot claim the high ground in Britain since the same thing happens to Ukip every time one of its members says something that is stark staring bonkers.
Saying that Fury should be removed from the list of candidates for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and, more importantly, that Donald Trump should be banned from coming to the UK entirely miss the point. In fact, I might have had more sympathy with these views had there been similar anger when the Chinese PM accompanied David Cameron to the pub. Not only has the Chinese PM said some awful things, he has done some pretty bad ones also.
So what is the best way to deal with these matters? Well, if the law is not broken, then how about ignoring them? I would no more vote for Fury as a sports personality than I would vote for Trump in a general election (not that I can do the latter). I won’t pay extra money to Rupert Murdoch to watch Fury fight on this pay per view channels, either.
I rather agree with, of all people, George Osborne, who said Trump’s views should be addressed by “robust democratic argument”. And do the same to Fury’s intellectually bankrupt views. Just argue better than these two buffoons and the public will make up their own mind!
It’s legal to say stupid things. We might not like it and we might rather people said more sensible things, but the world isn’t like that.
However, if Trump becomes leader of the free world and Fury wins a public vote on the specific merits of his personality it will probably reflect quite badly on the electorate, too.
