Back To The Future

It appears that everyday, companies and organisation in the UK tighten the noose of self censorship around our necks.

Dewsbury ASDA Missing A Greeter Now ....

For instance Supermarket giants ASDA have a social media policy, even for their staffs private accounts.

Effectively, they reserve the right to discipline or sack staff whom they designate as having broken their policies .... talk about big brother! Now I can just about understand these policies if your staff went on these sites, and then criticised the company, management, or made personal named attacks on other members of staff. Apparently their policies particularly applied if you identified as working for them on your social media pages or profiles.

In this modern world, some social media goes viral, and bad publicity can do so better than most (as ASDA are beginning to find out) ..... However, the 'PC crime' in this case was when Brian Leach, an ASDA worker (meeter and greeter in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire), paid the ASDA Price, after he attached the Billy Connolly comedy sketch 'Religion Is Over,' on his Facebook page in May 2019. He has since been sacked.

Now this sketch has been on national TV and is well known, but does include the F word (so don't continue reading this post, or play the video script, if your offended by atheist views, or reference to religions, or swearing).

It lasts barely 30 seconds on this clip, and states that all religions are over "Religion is f*cking finished. That's it, its f*cking over man, its F*CKING OVER! For a couple of thousand years, you f*cked it ... Its over! F*CKING OVER! Take your Reformation, your Vatican, your f*cking Mecca and F*CK OFF! .... " Basically a brief rant against all religions.

Now its quite clear that the sketch specifically attacks both Protestant Christians (Reformation reference), and Catholicism (Vatican reference), and Islam (Mecca reference), BUT you can guess which part of the clip a work colleague objected to ..... Yes, you guessed it in one. The complaints were that it was "Islamophobic".

In what way is it discriminatory or Islamophobic? Ah well, just the reference to 'Mecca' was enough for it to be a sacking offence, while the references to the 'Reformation', and the 'Vatican' were seemingly acceptable to Human Resources at ASDA. It appears that this blogs mention of back-door blasphemy laws to protect Islam last week were a little late, they are not needed, because the oh so PC human resources departments already enact these 'laws'.

So apparently do the London Metropolitan Police, who have also decided that a 1997 pressure groups all encompassing definition of 'Islamophobia' is the basis for arrests .... frightening.

Met Police Office Definition Of Islamophobia ....

Now I know that if this had been me, I would be looking into taking court action for personal damages, but Mr Leach, tried to keep his job by taking the clip down, and issued an apology to the complainants "I have realised that peoples faiths are very important to them and the nature of the post regarding the sensitive nature of it relating to the holy place of Islam. If I had faith I can imagine being very upset myself."    

ASDA issued a po-faced statement ..... "We never comment on individual circumstances. However, we do not tolerate any form of discrimination from colleagues or customers, and take such behaviour seriously"... No mention of defending the rights of free speech, legality, secular opinion, atheist beliefs etc ...

Now I am an atheist, and not being able to freely mock or question any religion or belief that I damn well like would make me very upset, and feel very discriminated against ... but apparently secular or atheist views from 'colleagues or customers', are not protected by ASDA's social media policies. So much for the formation of a secular society in the 20th century West, as we head back to the 7th century Middle East, as fast as apologists for our culture can manage.

But think on this, arresting people for criticising Islam, or Christianity, or Buddhism, or Hinduism are the practices of countries such as Pakistan, Russia, Burma, and India .... is that the type of society that we want (Or ASDA for that matter)? Is free speech a dispensable right in the West?

Religions should not be protected by law or practice, and should be subject to reasonable criticism. But I can see that legal sanction against doing so is going to be coming very, very soon .... I am actually glad not to be long for this world, if this is the back to the future we are heading toward.