John MacDonald: Are we really that scared of saying what we think?

At the same time as Winston Peters is declaring war on wokeism, we’ve got a Christchurch community board member saying we are too scared to say things these days in case we offend people.   Ali Jones is the community board member and she’s firing back at criticisms that comments she made online about mobility car parks were "shocking".   I’ll get to her comments and the reaction but, let me say first, that I don’t agree with her that we are too scared to say things these days.   I would say the only thing that has changed is the way we say things. The language we use. Which has to be a good thing. I know some people think that being anti-hate speech is being anti-free speech, but that’s not how I see it.   It does seem to me that the people who are anti-woke or anti-pc tend to jump to conclusions about what you can or can’t say, and they use that to back-up their argument.   But if you think about how much more open people are when it comes to speaking out about all sorts of stuff, then you can’t buy into the argument that people are scared to speak.   People are speaking out way more than they used to.   So what’s happened is Ali Jones put a post on social media asking people if they thought it was weird that there are so many mobility parks on Rolleston Ave, in central Christchurch.   She said it seemed crazy to have so many mobility parks —four of them— sitting empty, while other people struggle to find somewhere to park.   And is she getting a roasting for it from a disability support group which is saying today that her comments were “shocking”.    CCS Disability Action is the group and one of its access co-ordinators, Raewyn Hailes, says it’s not-on for someone in public office to say what Ali Jones said about the mobility car parks.   She’s saying today that if a public toilet was unoccupied at times, you wouldn’t close it or remove it.   She says: “It’s extremely disappointing that someone who holds public office would make such a comment because it does have a negative impact on people. Who knows, she might need one some time.”   Ali Jones has fired back at that. She says she’s angry about it and that it shows that we are “too bloody risk averse” when it comes to saying things.   She says the criticisms are “a load of rubbish” and she asked a “straight-forward question” because she has never seen the mobility car parks used and wanted to know if anyone else had.   Ali says she isn't anti-mobility park. She just wanted to find out if other people have the same impression that she does – that they don’t get used that much. But she’s not having any of the criticism she’s getting for her comments and the questions she asked in her social media post.   She thinks the reaction from the disability support group shows why people are too scared to say anything these days. That we’re too scared to say things in case we offend people or upset them.   But I disagree. Yes, we’ve changed the way we say certain things and, maybe, Ali could have chosen another way to find out what she wanted to find out about the mobility parks. Maybe she could have worded it differently.   But just because you might disagree with what another person says, telling them you disagree isn’t shutting them down. It isn’t cancelling them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.