Dear Editor,
I noticed you recently published an article by the Whiteshill and Ruscombe Community. https://stroudtimes.com/whiteshill-and-ruscombe-community-issue-statement-ahead-of-katie-hopkins-visit/
I would like to ask what authority these individuals have assumed because they certainly do not stand for all of Whiteshill and Ruscombe. I believe that most residents would support the right to lawful free speech regardless of personal biases. I do not support the views of many people but I believe as long as what they say is lawful they have every right to say it without exclusion. In such a belief although I do not agree with this so called “Community” group I still support this group’s right to demonstrate.
This “Community” group purports to stand for “Tolerance and Inclusion” and yet all they espouse is intolerance and exclusion. Intolerance of any ideology that does not align with their own and exclusion of all people who challenge their dogmatic views. They are neither wholly liberal, tolerant, hopeful or inclusive in any shape or form of the words.
In fact the idea one should only tolerate one set of political ideologies of the world was espoused by the Marxist Marcuse in the 1960s in his essay on “Repressive Tolerance”. This is very much been taken as a handbook for activism by those of a certain political leaning and one-eyed “tolerance”.
I would ask if this so called “Community” group are even in fact residents of Whiteshill and not just activists trying to silence political opponents. I am a resident and do not know of one single other person who supports their Marxist support of Repressive Tolerance but, unlike them, I’m sure they exist but I do not assume to know or speak for everyone in the community!
The Whiteshill and Ruscombe Free Speech Society
