'Wokeism is the new fascism': Piers Morgan says democracy is under threat from 'cancel culture' unless society stands up to the 'illiberal mob' and defends the right to free speech

Piers Morgan has spoken out passionately in defense of free speech, calling the 'woke' cancel culture that cost him his job on Good Morning Britain a new form of 'fascism' that threatens the very foundations of democracy.

In his first sit-down interview since leaving the UK breakfast show, Morgan, the Editor-at-Large of DailyMail.com, on Monday slammed the 'illiberal mob' that increasingly controls public discourse.

'If we lose the right to have an opinion, the right to respect other opinions, then ultimately democracy dies. It's the bedrock of democracy,' Morgan told Tucker Carlson on the Fox News host's new online series for Fox Nation.

'You then become something different, you become a totalitarian state run by an illiberal mob, who are the new fascists. Is that what anybody wants? Do liberals want that? I don't want that, I'm a liberal,' added Morgan.

Last month, Morgan became the target of online outrage and wild accusations of racism after stating that he did not believe key claims made by Meghan Markle in her interview with Oprah Winfrey, including that a senior Royal made racist comments about her son Archie's skin tone, and that Palace staff rebuffed her attempts to seek counseling when she had suicidal thoughts.

He was forced out of his job at GMB when he refused to back down from his position, and the controversy spread to the U.S. when Sharon Osbourne was forced to leave as co-host of the CBS show The Talk after defending Morgan's right to his opinion.

Morgan pointed to these incidents, as well as the recent ouster of new Teen Vogue editor Alexi McCammond over racist tweets from her teenage years, which she deleted and apologized for, as evidence that 'woke cancel culture' has gone out of control.

'I don't believe any Americans I've met on my travels would be comfortable with what is happening here. What happened to me, to Sharon Osbourne, to the editor of Teen Vogue. None of this seems American to me. It's the country of freedoms, it's the country of the Constitutional right to have an opinion,' he said.

'This is not why our countries went to war with a fascist group like the Nazis. And yet here we are with a new liberal form of fascism, where you either sign up to a fake narrative, you either believe something that is untrue, or you have to be destroyed. Isn't that what fascism is? Isn't that the purest personification of fascism,' continued Morgan.

'It's exactly the same thing that they profess to detest most. If you ask anyone who is really woke, they hate fascists, and yet they behave exactly the same way,' said Morgan.

'It's getting worse and worse, more and more of these stories. And if you believe in free speech, it's incumbent upon you to stand up now. Whoever you are, whatever business you're working in, the right to have an opinion is at the bedrock of the First Amendment to the Constitution,' he continued.

'If the Nazis had prevailed then we in Britain would not have that right. We would not be able to express our freely held opinion. It would be like North Korea, where if you express an opinion against the ruler you get killed,' predicted Morgan.

'Is that the way we want to go in Britain and America? Is that the next stage in this where simply people losing their jobs or being cancelled is not enough for the woke mob? That you actually have to start killing people to make sure they don't ever say them again? This is fascism, it's the new form, and it's got to be repelled,' he said.

Morgan said that his ouster from GMB was driven by an 'orchestrated mob' of online fanatics, which didn't represent most of the British population.

'This cancel culture, it's a real thing. This woke mob want to cancel people who do not follow the narrative, and it's got increasingly dangerous,' he said.

'Only 20 percent of the population is on Twitter. And of that, 10 percent of the people make 80 percent of the noise,' Morgan added.

'Most people aren't on social media. Most people are just regular people, walking around trying to get through a pandemic right now,' he said.

Morgan said he stood by his belief that Meghan Markle's claims were false, pointing to evidence that has emerged that several of her assertions, such as her claim that she and Prince Harry legally married in a private ceremony, were inaccurate.

'I was angry because there was this growing sense that if you didn't believe Meghan Markle on everything she said, then you were the problem, you were a racist,' he exclaimed.

'At what point are we allowed to disbelieve her without being called a racist?' asked Morgan. 'What is happening to our democracies when people feel so cowed by the woke mob that they can't express an honestly held opinion without being immediately branded a racist.'

'I'm prepared to be proven wrong, but here we are a month later and there is still no evidence for any of this stuff,' he said of Markle's claims.

Still, Morgan insisted: 'It's not about Meghan Markle. She's a delusional Duchess who's on the make and wants to make millions, hundreds of millions, off her titles whilst trashing the Royal Family and everything it stands for. Fine.'

'It's really about free speech, that's really what it's about. And what happened to me is happening all over Britain and all over America. I can take it, I've got broad shoulders. I've been in the rough and tumble of the media game a long time,' he said.

'There are many people who don't have our platform, who are getting wiped out, eradicated, lives destroyed careers ended over the most ridiculous things,' he went on.

'In a way what happened to Sharon Osbourne was even more disconcerting to me,' Morgan said. 'It's a show called The Talk!'

'She was taken down very deliberately, and it's all because she dared to tweet that I was entitled to my opinion,' he added. 'She was attacked on her own show by her co-host, who said that [her defense of me] effectively was her supporting someone who said racist things.'

'And when Sharon got annoyed and said, "Well what did he say that was racist," they couldn't say anything, because I never had. And yet now, Sharon's gone too,' mused Morgan.

'These people call themselves liberals, but there's nothing liberal about them,' he said.

Morgan called on 'woke liberals to wake up, to really wake up, and to start actually being liberal, because that means you listen to other people's opinions, and you respect them even if you don't agree with them, that you engage in debate and civil discourse with them.'

'But that's all gone, now there's no room for debate, it's their way or no way. And if you dare to defy the woke narrative about anything, then they will weaponize things like race or mental health, whatever it may be, to get people cancelled in their eyes,' he said.

'I'm not a victim and I haven't been cancelled. I'm here talking to you, you're the number one rated cable news star in America, so this is a very comfortable form of cancellation for me,' Morgan insisted.

The veteran journalist and outspoken commentator said that the solution lies with corporate America, and called on business executives to 'grow a spine' and stand up to online mobs.

'Bosses have to stand firm. And if they don't this will get worse and worse,' he said.

'When this woke mob comes again, like they did for this young Teen Vogue editor, who lost her job before she could even start, you need people at Conde Nast to go, "Nope, not having this, sorry, off you go Wokies," and she keeps her job.'

Photo: Piers Morgan has spoken out passionately in defense of free speech, calling 'woke' cancel culture a new form of 'fascism' that threatens the very foundations of democracy

Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9438859/Piers-Morgan-says-democracy-threat-woke-cancel-culture.html