Dr Augusto Zimmermann, WALTA President and law professor at Sheridan Institute, participated last Saturday as a panellist at the Disrupted Festival of Ideas.
Organised by the State Library of Western Australia, Dr Zimmermann was one the participants of the panel discussing the meaning of “Cancel Culture”.
The panel explored what cancel culture actually means. Some argue that cancel culture is played by the “extreme left” who want to destroy their political opponents—and drive them into the outer darkness.
Ironically, Dr Zimmermann received an email from organisers of the Disrupted Festival of Ideas to communicate that one of the panellists has “cancelled” the public display of the panel presentation.
The letter sent to Dr Zimmermann states:
“Unfortunately one of the panellists did not give permission for the panel to be streamed so we had to follow his wishes. Apologies for this but we needed all panellists to agree to streaming.”
As can be seen, Dr Zimmermann’s panel discussion on “cancel culture” was cancelled by one of the panellists.
Moderated by Dr Catherine Archer (Murdoch University, other panellists included:
- Kai Schwweizer (LGBTQIA+ activist)
- Graeme Paton (Murdoch researcher and student activist)
The panel was removed from the lineup, yet listed in all the publications.
During the panel discussion, Dr Zimmermann explored the ‘fascistic agenda” of the “new left” in Australia.
According to him,
“To better understand the New Left and its constant recourse to violence and intimidation, it is important to explore its totalitarian dimensions.
“The Left have been supressing debate so for quite a long time and before we knew it as Cancel Culture, back when this was just called political correctness.
“Indeed, the Left is afraid of having their hegemonic discourse further challenged”.
Dr Zimmermann also explained:
“It makes a foolish assumption that free speech favours those with more power. Anyone who has any decent knowledge of history knows very well that protecting free speech is about giving voice to the powerless.
“To preserve the current status quo, the left-wing elites will continue to suppress dissenting ideas and to prohibit opposing voices that challenge their hegemonic discourse in our democratic society”.
As Dr Zimmermann stated, the left-wing establishment that epitomises the present status quo have a particular interest in the censoring of democratic debate and the free exchange of ideas.
As such he believes this is why the public display of his panel discussion was cancelled by another panellist.