Gypsy grandmothers say very little, but what they do say is followed without question. Among other peoples aging females rarely have such power, but they’ve always been allowed a certain freedom of speech. Even in Stalinist Russia babushkas were allowed to grumble a little. That’s an advantage of genuine social diversity—of what’s now called stereotyping and discrimination. If rights and privileges differ somewhat then it’s more likely someone will be in a position to do what needs to be done. It’s even possible someone will say things that must be said but cannot be spoken.
The EU has of course grown beyond such notions. They have their own notion of diversity, which demands uniformity in everything that is allowed to matter. As a result, they’re bringing criminal charges against veteran ranter Oriana Fallaci and former film goddess Brigitte Bardot for complaining about the Islamicization of Europe. For some reason saying a religion is bad is “racism,” saying you’d rather it wasn’t dominant in your country is “xenophobia,” and everyone knows that such things must extirpated at all costs. If that means bringing a distinguished 73-year-old woman with cancer into court as a criminal because someone thinks she said the wrong thing, so be it.
In Njal’s Saga a newly Christianized Viking was willing to carry on a religious debate with an old pagan woman respectfully and without resorting to force. A thousand years later and in the heart of Europe the missionaries of the new PC religion are much less tolerant. Two gifted women, now along in years, who received acclaim for being provocative are finding that some provocations—like saying they like Europe to be European—are simply intolerable.