Leftists Red Book Under Attack...

A modern spin on sinful words

By MICHAEL COREN, QMI Agency

In his outstanding new book, The Misogynist, novelist and biographer Piers Paul Read makes a list of what he describes as “the Seven Sins of the Secular State.”

They are racism, misogyny, homophobia, elitism, smoking, obesity and religious belief. Read discusses all of this with a breathtaking grasp of the absurdities of the contemporary world and the book is essential stuff.

Here are some of my own observations.

Racism. Awful, of course, but when applied today the accusation can mean a justified objection to the demands of a race-based special interest group, or the exposing of particularly high violent crime rates within specific urban areas, just as much as it can signify genuine dislike based on skin colour. In fact the latter is now thankfully rare and comes from identifiable minorities as often as it does white people.

Misogyny. Almost meaningless. Only the deranged hate women, but some people — male and female — disagree with the more radical and fundamentalist demands of the feminist community and are thus marginalized as haters. I once listened as a former British PM was accused of being a misogynist. But, I objected, “I think you’ll find she’s a woman.” “Yes,” came the reply, “but she’s not a sister.”

Homophobia. This one is obvious and, thank goodness, many gay people are now speaking up to tell the zealots to stop trying to silence any opposition by using this contrived word. If you genuinely hate homosexuals you are a sad, broken person. If you object to same-sex marriage, gay adoption, special privileges for a sexual minority, and reject the gay narrative, you merely have an opinion.

Elitism. Oddly enough often used by members of elites to keep other people out. There is none so ostensibly egalitarian and hypocritical as a rich, powerful snob who has embraced leftism. There is nothing at all wrong with elitism if the status has been achieved through talent and hard work. The term generally means your opinion is conservative but your opponent has run out of critical terms of abuse.

Smoking. I don’t. Don’t like it and advise against it. But it’s severely schizophrenic that, as we glamorize and romanticize cannabis and fight to make it legal, we also demonize tobacco to a near unparalleled degree, especially as the long-term health consequences of regular pot use are becoming increasingly obvious.

Obesity. Fat people should lose weight. But only if they want to. Of course it’s a potential health hazard to be overweight, but I’d rather spend time with an obese person who was kind, witty and intelligent than a skinny person who was nasty, boring and stupid. There are many such skeletal dullards.

Religious belief. Horror! The unpardonable sin. Pretend animals are human, worship trees, do what Oprah tells you to do, and weep when U.S. President Barack Obama makes another banal remark, but do not embrace God, particularly if He is a Christian God.

Piers Paul Read has it right and his book is a splendid story of modern man, modern romance and modern manners. It would be a sin not to read the book. No, that’s not one of the seven.

Read Michael Coren’s blog at canoe.ca/corenscomment