Sir, – In "Beware Trump, we are dissidents; we are legion" (Opinion & Analysis, January 23rd), Charles Blow begins celebrating the "dissidents" who were protesting Donald Trump's inauguration this week with the claims that "they were a rebuke of bigotry and a call for equality and inclusion".
Only a few paragraphs on, we hit the usual aggressive liberal-left rhetoric: “If my difference frightens you, you have a problem, not me. If my discussion of my pain makes you ill at ease, you have a problem, not me. If you feel that the excavation of my history presages the burial of yours, then you have a problem, not me.”
Is this “equality and inclusion”? Or is it supremacism?
He acknowledges the argument that the identity politics and victimology of the liberal left has fuelled a “populist” backlash, but grandly rejects any suggestion that this should give liberals pause for thought, declaring: “The Enlightenment must never bow to the Inquisition.”
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But what is the Inquisition, in modern terms? Millions of people would answer that it is the custodians of political correct orthodoxy who keep watch over the mainstream media, the education system, the political system, and almost all public life, over most of the western world. This is an Inquisition for which anything short of whole-hearted acceptance of secular-liberal-internationalist orthodoxy is to be anathematised. – Yours, etc,
MAOLSHEACHLANN
Ó CEALLAIGH,
Ballymun, Dublin 11.
Sir, – Kathy Sheridan (Opinion & Analysis, January 25th) calls for protest marches against Donald Trump. This may be appealing on many issues (minority rights, climate change, etc). However, a lot of protesters may describe themselves as "anti-globalisation" on matters relating to the economy. If they examine this a little closer, they might find they have a lot in common with Mr Trump's "economic nationalism". Fact, alternative fact or mere opinion ? – Yours, etc,
MIKE MORAN,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.