By: Dr Matevž Tomšič
That the phenomenon of so‑called cancel culture has spread across the Western world is hardly news.
This is a practice in which, in the name of political correctness and the fight against some sort of hate speech, those who oppose the left‑wing political‑ideological agenda are persecuted. In the most “advanced” countries, this has been happening for decades. The absurdity lies in the fact that these are the very countries (the United States, the United Kingdom) that were once the staunchest defenders of freedom of expression. And it is especially absurd that the generator of this repressive practice is the academic sphere. Universities, which since their origins in the European Middle Ages were oases of freedom, places where scholars freely debated the key questions of the world’s existence and human life within it, have become spaces of ideological indoctrination and intolerance. Some of them resemble party schools from the communist era more than institutions cultivating top‑level knowledge grounded in intellectual openness.
In Slovenia, too, this kind of ideological imposition on one side and exclusion on the other has its home, stemming from the ideological hegemony of the left through its control of the media, education, culture, and more. Under the current government, this has only intensified. There have been several cases of punishing people who allegedly insulted important figures of the ruling establishment with their words. In this way, they try to intimidate those who might dare to publicly criticise the “untouchables.”
However, the culture of silencing is spreading even in environments where one would not expect it. For example, in our southern neighbour, Croatia. There, the political situation is in many respects the opposite of Slovenia’s. For most of the time since 1990, the right has been in power, and the largest party of that bloc – the Croatian Democratic Union – plays a distinctly dominant role on the political stage. The break with the communist past was also far more decisive than in Slovenia. The Homeland War, in which Croatia defended itself against Greater‑Serbian aggression, contributed to this, leaving far less nostalgia for the former state and its regime.
Yet even there, strongholds of quite radical left‑wing activism exist. Some of these are the media, and others are the institutions that train creators of media content. This became clearly visible at the recent anti‑fascist rallies. These were typical manifestations of the kind we see in the Western world, where (radical) leftists fight against some phantom fascism (which today labels almost anything the left dislikes). Many members of the academic sphere took part in them and enjoyed considerable sympathy in the mainstream media. At the same time, those who opposed these rallies or mocked them were subjected to harsh attacks.
The worst witch‑hunt targeted the well‑known political scientist Boris Havel, who posted a mocking comment on one of the social networks: “F*** a rally where Maja Sever is the prettiest!” This journalist and activist was one of the main organisers of the events. He was accused of misogyny and publicly humiliating the activist and her like‑minded colleagues. Demands were made that the institution where he works sanction him. And this indeed happened. The leadership of the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb succumbed to the pressure and issued him a warning before termination of employment. Nothing so scandalous has happened even at any Slovenian university. Havel’s remark about the appearance of the anti‑fascist women can at worst be considered rude, but nothing more. Similar or far harsher comments from leftists can be found in abundance. It is obvious that what bothers them about Havel is not alleged misogyny, but his conservative political orientation. The so‑called anti‑fascists use every lever to silence their opponents. And this is precisely the behaviour of those they claim to be protesting against.