Journalist Tim Stanley writes about his ordeal in the UK Telegraph.
Excerpt:
An attempt to hold a reasonable debate about abortion in Oxford was called off after students threatened to disrupt it. Tim Stanley, one of the debaters, writes that the authoritarian Left has become everything it claims to hate.
I would’ve thought that the one place in Britain where you could agree to disagree amicably would be Oxford University. But I was wrong. For instance, I’ve discovered that you’re only allowed to debate abortion there if a) you’re a woman and b) you’re all for it. Any other approach to the subject is liable to attract a mob…
A few months ago I accepted an invitation by the Oxford Students for Life to debate Brendan O’Neill on the subject “This House believes Britain’s Abortion Culture Hurts Us All”. The setting was Christ Church College and around 60 people signed up to attend on Facebook. To be clear: this wasn’t a pro-life demo and the subject wasn’t whether or not women should have the right to choose abortion. Even though I was speaking for the proposition, my speech would’ve begun with noting that the motion has nothing to do with abortion rights per se and was simply a consideration of how having effective abortion on demand affects wider society. Brendan, speaking for the opposition, would’ve doubtless done a fine job and probably run rings round me. It was a fair and free debate that I half expected to lose.
But someone was outraged that we dared to discuss this issue at all. A protest group of around 300 people called “What the f**k is ‘Abortion Culture’?” appeared on Facebook that promised to “take along some non-destructive but oh so disruptive instruments to help demonstrate to the anti-choicers just what we think of their ‘debate’.” We were guilty of promoting “really sh*tty anti-choice rhetoric and probs some cissexism.” The foul language indicates how sophisticated the protesters were, while the accusation of cissexism had me reaching for my online urban dictionary. Was I being called a sissy by homophobic feminists? Mais non. Apparently a “cis” is someone who identifies with the same gender that they were born with. So that’s a thing now.
The university’s students’ union also issued a statement that took aim at Brendan and me for being so offensively attached to our God-given genitals: “The Women’s Campaign (WomCam) condemn SFL for holding this debate. It is absurd to think we should be listening to two cisgender men debate about what people with uteruses should be doing with their bodies.” Next, the Christ Church Junior Common Room (posh talk for “the committee that run the students’ bar”) passed a motion asking their college to decline to room the debate. Eventually, the college caved-in on the grounds that, “there was insufficient time between today and tomorrow to address some concerns they had about the meeting”. The pro-life society tried to find an alternative venue but everyone else said “no”. I believe that two colleges agreed only to later rescind their invitations. I was sitting in Paddington Station (in a duffel coat and hat!) ready to jump on a train to Oxford at 4.40pm when I was told that the debate was finally, totally called off.
So what do we learn from this?
We learn that feminists on the left are opposed to free speech. Once they decide something, they don’t want to have to consider alternatives or hear evidence contrary to what they feel is right for them. It doesn’t matter what is morally right or respectful of the rights of others – the selfish desire for happiness is absolute, and to help with personal responsibility. And if free speech has to go in order to prevent anyone from harassing them with pesky facts, then so much the worse for free speech.
One thing is for sure, the pro-abortion position is not adopted because of logic or evidence. Being pro-abortion is non-cognitive. It cannot be defended rationally, but survives only by mob threats and raw power. If this were not so, then the feminists would have let the debate go through and their side would have won it on the merits. But they knew they would lose a fair debate, and that’s why they shut the debate down. And yet I’m sure that they would call themselves pro-diversity and open-minded.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
My goodness, we wouldn’t want a public debate to happen in Oxford would we? People might *gasp* start thinking… for themselves…. about philosophical things! We can’t have that sort of thing happening in modern Britain!
The only way to keep the cultural train moving in the direction of Progress is to burn all the bridges behind us! And rip out the throttle controls. And the brake lever.
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Reblogged this on Stuffed Sock and commented:
One person out of 3 in the Murder of Children has a choice! And that choice to ‘abort’ their little one is always murder, over nurturing their child’s young life.
If you agree with that sentiment, you are no longer allowed to voice it at Oxford University!
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Reblogged this on Legally Corrupt and commented:
IMHO the biggest problem is that feminism has discarded the enduring and binding emotion called “love” in favor of carnal lust and transient gratification of vagina owners.
Feminism has also degraded marriage from an enduring mutual commitment, uniting families, for the sake of raising children into an ephemeral display of infatuation.
… but above all, as a transgirl myself, I am simply shocked that the description “cisgender” has been usurped as were it a slur!
Now IMHO it’s hardly likely a transgender person would ever be wanting an abortion herself, so IMHO we are just being abused as a facade and scapegoat for the political agenda of radical feminists. Transwomen would do well .. to note these are probably the very same feminists who tomorrow will be flaming her as were e she an “autogynephiliac narcissist sexual pervert” and a “threat to women’s identity”. #TransWomenAgainstFeminism #EndFeminism
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Any movement has extremist and everyone shouldn’t just assume that a person is a feminist they act like these people. The point of feminism is for equality among both sexes. For example education is a very big deal in other countries cause females are not allowed to get an education and their is nothing wrong with co-dependence where a husband and wife can work together equally to raise children and build a loving home.
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This debate was meant to be about abortion I gather, not about education. Two wrongs do not make a right, and so it is false reasoning to side track onto different forms of discrimination.
It is also false in that it alleges discrimination on education in unspecified “other” countries when in our own countries the education opportunities are quite the reverse.
Regarding raising children,m feminism does nothing to promote mutual parental responsibility, quite the contrary, they make it a financial liability for men and put females in total control, often based on false accusations.
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Yes this topic is about abortion but assuming all feminist are like this is wrong. I used education as an example of what feminism is trying to do,so a person can’t use examples anymore because it doesn’t relate to the topic at hand? If you want specifics then what about Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan who was shot because of her views on women who want education and the taliban trying to prevent that? Feminism promotes the equality of the sexist so I’m sorry if all you see of feminism is the extremist who are using the movement for their own personal selfish reasons.
‘Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women
Feminist activists campaign for women’s rights – such as in contract law, property, and voting – while also promoting bodily integrity, autonomy, and reproductive rights for women. Feminist campaigns have changed societies, particularly in the West, by achieving women’s suffrage, gender neutrality in English, equal pay for women, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Feminists have worked to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.They have also advocated for workplace rights, including maternity leave, and against forms of discrimination against women. Feminism is mainly focused on women’s issues, but author bell hooks and others have argued that, since feminism seeks gender equality, it must necessarily include men’s liberation because men are also harmed by sexism and gender roles.’
Also what do you mean by false accusations? Give specifics
As for abortion personally I feel that pro-life due to a majority of its movement is based in religion can cause some problems. America is a melting pot of various cultures and races not everyone is a christian and trying to impose one’s religious belief onto an entire population of citizens who as are not all christians is wrong. I also do not like when christians stand outside anortion clinics trying to convince women to not have an abortion,she is mostly likely already nervous like anyone would be before a medical procedure and the constant hovering is just making it worst. There is also the use of the pictures blowing them up into poster sizes and standing on sidewalks and going around school campuses is really unnecessary. Also the way most Pro-lifers approach people about the subject of abortion could be handle slightly better. When the opposing person is pro-choice raising your voice to the point of yelling is not helping your case and same for those who are pro-choice.
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Feminism in its modern form no longer means what you said. Now it means that the gender differences do not exist and the sexes are interchangeable. This is a radical view.
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Well the feminist i have seen and meet still uphold to what the movement original stood for and many others do as well in various states.
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Well OK… let’s use education as an example then. Now I don’t want to spam up Mr. Knight’s weblog, so I’ll just point to my response to Ms. Yousafzai’s campaign here: https://plus.google.com/108972209451125747509/posts/PDjzFzhJ1uH and I ask you: exactly what is “feminism” doing to redress the sexual inequality in education OUTSIDE of Afghanistan?
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1. Malala is from Pakistan not Afghanistan
2. As for education outside the Middle East here http://www.nber.org/digest/jan07/w12139.html
3. As a black female,there are more black females in college than males is very easily explain once you take in account all the factors. Majority of blacks are most likely to end up in prison than college. There is always a lack of positive black male role models for young males because a majority of them look up to rappers and athletes. Many black children are raised in single mother homes. Black female and male relationships are a struggle due to females being raised since young to be independent and not learning to be co-dependent. I could go on but hopefully you see my point.
Just because its not in the media or news doesn’t mean there aren’t feminist out there doing the right thing for equality among the sexes.
Christianity gets a bad rap and a majority of christianity that is shown in the media is very negativity but it doesn’t mean i judge the whole religion based on a few individuals
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Now you are diverting onto racism, yet the statistics showed it applies to ALL ethnic groups. What you present is once again just feminists conveniently cherry picking to justify demands for more “equality” for female people. What you present is generalized denigrating and vilifying of those born male, as a pretext to deprive them of their equal rights.
No dear, feminism is not about equality. Feminism is gynocentric sexist hate cult founded on prejudice, misrepresentation and lies. #EndFeminism
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Well i was speaking from my own personal experience didnt know that meant racism but okay & as i stated before all movements and religions have radicals or extremist just becau se they are shown more does not mean that those who are feminist who truly want equality between the sexes should be group with those who use feminism for their own selfish reasons
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@ChildOfRa I could also speak from personal experience of unprovoked anonymous personal attacks by the radical feminist hate cult. An example is here: http://genderidentitywatch.com/2014/10/12/angelica-perdutachris-scaife-angelicaperduta-new-zealand/
They try to defame me by showing one of my posts, yet it is exactly why I would call myself “egalitarian” rather than “feminist”.
Also note this *is* my legal name.. and yes, I do use a doll avatar because I don’t want to be flamed for being transgender every time I take part in a forum. None the less I am *not* too cowardly to show my face.
p.s. for Christians who might feel inclind to condemn me, I am not sexually motivated. I have done no wrong to anyone. I quote from your scripture, Matthew 19:12
“For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
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One of the saddest things is that number of babies aborted – 3 million – pretty much matches the number of immigrants required to supplement the UK work force.
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