Richard Dawkins Deplatforming & The Hist’s Cultural Revolution

Another year, another case of Trinity’s once proud intellectual institutions being subverted by self-serving progressives. 

Yesterday, according to the University Times, the College Historical Society, or ‘The Hist’ as they like to brand themselves now, announced that they will ‘not be moving ahead’ with their plans to host prominent intellectual Richard Dawkins. 

This decision was taken mere days after the society announced their lineup of speakers for the academic year. Auditor Bríd O’Donnell announced on her Instagram that she had only “read his Wikipedia page and researched him briefly”, and so was apparently unaware of the academic’s views on Islam.

This was hardly an unexpected move. In fact, it is far more remarkable that Richard Dawkins was invited to ‘The Hist’ in the first place, considering his views. 

This is not to imply that the academic was a poor choice for the oldest student society in the world. Quite the opposite. From The Selfish Gene to the very concept of a meme, Dawkins has grown far beyond the label of ‘prominent academic’, and is now a household name due to the sheer amount of contributions he has made to the modern world. It is hard, in fact, to think of a more important academic to invite as a guest speaker than Richard Dawkins.

No, the reason why it was so surprising that Richard Dawkins was because of how farcical the politics of ‘The Hist’ have become. 

While previously the saner of Trinity’s two major debating societies, ‘The Hist’ experienced what could only be called a soft coup over the summer. From the society announcing its support of the American ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, to the denouncing past versions of itself for the mortal sin of racism, over the period of a few months the society has become one of the most rabidly progressive institutions within the college. 

Perhaps the greatest illustration of this change can be seen on Auditor O’Donnell’s Instagram page. With the society having, over the summer, denounced his visit, O’Donnell posted a video titled ‘bye bye Nigel’, showing a picture of British Politician Nigel Farage being torn in two and thrown in a bin. O’Donnell’s regime, despite still very much being in its infancy, has demonstrated that not only are they willing to erase the society’s history, but will actively do so with glee.

And what has this regime decided to replace this history with? Who does this society believe is more worthy of a platform than Richard Dawkins? Well, on Wednesday the society will be hosting none other than Ireland’s preeminent Black Studies advocate and hieroglyphics expert Ebun Joseph, who will be taking part in a panel titled ‘Racism in Irish Education’. 

Let us make something clear, the views held by Dawkins in relation to Islam are completely reasonable, and the very fact he has been deplatformed from an Irish college is outrageous in itself. However, his deplatforming is merely a symptom of a far greater travesty that has occured over the last number of years. 

The modern progressive has managed to worm its way to the top of Irish society. While the likes of O’Donnell would have been laughed out of the room less than a decade ago, they now rule the roost, forcing their views down the throat of everyone they can. Dissent in the minds of these ideologues should never be tolerated, as demonstrated by how frequently they will try to get people deplatformed, and even depersoned, when they are perceived to have sinned against their new form of Cultural Maoism.

This publication has eagerly followed the slow motion power struggle the past 6 months within the hallowed halls of the GMB.

From the rolling out of white privilege lessons as well as siren calls of structural racism from jilted left wing members, the rot has been coming for a while for the society

It is clear that ideologues have gained control of the halls of debate in this country and its colleges. Whether it be online, on television, or in our universities, what used to be the source of much needed dialogue within an often fractured island now do not permit even a slight deviation from dogma. For those of us rightfully horrified by such a state of affairs, we need to act now, or the consequences will be disastrous.

Two centuries ago, out of frustration with an ossified debating circuit, Edmund Burke founded what would become ‘The Hist’ for the sake of cutting ground on new ideas. Perhaps it’s time for Trinity students to let ‘The Hist’ melt away to its faith and try chart a new course.