All over the Western world, speakers who hold unpopular views that is, views unpopular with the Left are being told that they cannot speak. Sometimes they are dismissed by the companies for which they work. Sometimes their articles are accepted by newspapers but then returned because some journalists on the paper object. Sometimes they are physically attacked and injured. There’s been a reluctance to accept that these things are happening, but they are.
That’s why we’ve brought together this group of distinguished academics, journalists, and artists from several countries to discuss this disturbing new trend.
Laurence Fox, former actor until the Cancel Culture crowd drove him from his profession has now taken the challenge head-on. First by speaking out, next by founding Reclaim, a new political party in the United Kingdom, drawing support from both the Left and the Right, and then by a mayoral run in the City of London where he made a very respectable showing. In a recent Telegraph article, he was described as “saying aloud what mainstream politicians are too frightened to say, challenging the stifling conformity of identity politics. An actor turned evangelist preaching an alternative gospel to the false religion of woke”. Laurence discusses his own battle with Cancel Culture, with the actor’s union Equity, and his concern over the attacks on free speech from the “Cathedral of Woke” and how to respond effectively to this challenge.

This is a production of the Danube Institute and introduced by Danube Institute president, John O’Sullivan.