"One cannot judge the value of an opinion simply by the amount of courage that is required in holding it." Like most things George Orwell wrote, this remark gets to the heart of the matter. Writing in 1949, he said: "In 1895, when Oscar Wilde was jailed, it must have needed very considerable moral courage to defend homosexuality. Today it would need no courage at all: today the equivalent action would be, perhaps, to defend antisemitism."
Some sixty years later, and bearing in mind the first point Orwell made above, what opinions would require courage on the part of those who espouse them? Anti-semitism, in the western world at any rate; racism (again in certain parts of the world). What else?
Curously enough, I think it would be difficult for someone in the USA to espouse aetheist views if that person were a serious candidate for high office. Above all, it would not only be courageous but also downright dangerous to proclaim oneself an anti-Islamist in many parts of the world.
So what do these various "courageous" or "unfashionable" opinions tell us about the value of such opinions? Absolutely nothing!
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