Death of political satire may herald the end of democracy – Scotsman comment

More than 2,400 years later, Scotland may still bask in the glow of its role in the Enlightenment but the idea that democracy and the freedom to ridicule politicians go hand in hand seems to be under constant attack by angry supporters of one political persuasion or another.

Speaking to The Scotsman, satirist Rory Bremner told about the reaction to a one-off BBC show he made that dared to take a satirical look at the independence debate. After a period of pleasant comments on social media, he said, “I suddenly had a pile-on with people saying ‘you did a joke about Alex Salmond. Don’t insult me – I voted for him’. Never in my life had I had people saying that my comedy or satire was insulting people. It was bizarre and the hostility rocked me at the time. When I’ve thought about that over the years, I’ve felt ‘we need to push back against this.’”

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Similarly, comedian Dara Ó Briain, host of the former Mock the Week comedy show, has written about how some viewers were angry at the lack of “right-wing jokes”, while others were “really, really angry” they told jokes about Jeremy Corbyn. He was even told he had “blood on my hands” for apparently undermining the former Labour leader.

Genuine democratic debate – in which people attempt to win over others by the force of their arguments – is too often drowned out by the exponents of identity politics and culture wars. The latter care nothing about those who disagree with them. Instead, they demonise opponents, tell undecideds “you are either with us or against us”, and hope to win power through fear.

In such an atmosphere, satire has no place. It acts, therefore, as a canary in the coal mine. If satire dies, democracy may soon follow.