Ricky Gervais has once again picked up his rhetorical flag in favor of free speech.
The comedian called in for a talkRadio interview this week to discuss the 19th anniversary of “The Office” when the conversation pivoted to cultural changes that would make its creation near impossible today.
Mr. Gervais lamented an environment in which “outrage mobs” attempt to use their feelings as a license to quash opposing points of view.
“There’s this new weird sort of fascism of people thinking they know what you can say and what you can’t and it’s a really weird thing,” he told a London audience.
The entertainer made similar comments in January after critics of his Golden Globe hosting performance labeled him “right-wing.”
“If you’re mildly left-wing on Twitter, you’re suddenly Trotsky, right?” he continued Saturday with host Kevin O’Sullivan, Breitbart reported. “If you’re mildly conservative, you’re Hitler; and if you’re centrist and you look at both arguments, you’re a coward.”
Mr. Gervais added that it was “corrupt and wrong” for left-wing activists to essentially deputize themselves of social media “hate speech” police.
“These people hide behind a shield of goodness. ’We’re good. We’re social justice warriors. We’re doing this for good and what we say goes.’ And they don’t realize how corrupt and wrong that is. It’s just nonsense. It is mob rule.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.