Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Follow me on Odysee: odysee.com/@PothePerson:b

In The Emperor's New Clothes, something that I noticed is that the people in the story are all afraid or embarrassed to look stupid, which is certainly a relatable feeling for most real people, but if the story were to be written today about modern people, I think I would change it so the clothes were said to be invisible only to bigots. When asking myself honestly, I have to admit that I would probably remain silent in this situation, and I hate that about myself. It's probably what most people would do, whether they think so or not.

I used to think that people had stupid political beliefs because they didn't know any better. They based their beliefs on overly simple or naive understanding of the world, or they had been deceived. But as some of the widely held beliefs become more ridiculous, I've started to think people must know better, but they pretend to agree with this or that belief, or they just remain silent, out of social embarrassment, like the people in the story.

When trying to overcome this instinct to conform with the opinions of others, I try to remind myself that I'm neither exceptionally smart, nor exceptionally stupid, so if I've noticed something wrong with an apparently widely held belief, it's quite likely that other people have noticed it too. Maybe even most people. Therefore, all I need to do is to state the obvious and the spell will be broken, as it is in the story when the child says the Emperor is naked.

So, after thinking all this over and deciding to do better, I saw an opportunity on my local online Mums group.

I once heard someone say that Superman is different from all the other superheroes because his hero persona is his true self, and Clark Kent is his disguise. Although I would never compare myself to Superman, I can empathise with that aspect of his character. Online, as Po the Person, I can say my real opinions because the name is fake, but with the local Mums I use my real name, and fake opinions. So when one of the Mums posted about the success of a recent anti-racism training day at the local secondary school, I wouldn't normally say anything, even though I object to anti-racism training in schools for many many reason.
But after comitting to do better, I decided I could not remain silent in good conscience. I wrote a reply asking, 'Do 13-year-olds really need to learn this at school?'
One Mum answerd my question saying 'Absolutely. Don't you agree?' and I responded 'Not really appropriate in my opinion.'

I didn't want to start a debate or try to convince anyone of my opinion. My only aim was to let anyone reading the thread to know that they weren't the only one to notice the emperor was naked. It didn't matter to me that all the responses to my question were in support of teaching 13-year-olds anti-racism in school. I was speaking for the benefit of those too embarrassed to speak for themselves, so I never expected to get any public support. I wanted to prove that I wouldn't be cancelled on the spot just for voicing mild dissent.

It turns out I was a bit too optimistic. A few days later, I got a call from my employer's HR manager, who said a complaint had been made about me. HR made it clear that no action would be taken based on the complaint but I was sweating with nerves all through the call. I knew on an intellectual level that I had done nothing wrong but it still felt like I'd been caught committing a crime.

It has certainly made me reconsider whether I would do it again. One complaint might be easy to ignore, but if HR gets 2 or 3 complaints about me, even if they're all completely groundless, even if I've never had an issue working with non-white colleagues and clients, what is my employer going to think? Most of the other employees have 0 complaints of racism against their name.

I don't know who made the complaint or why, but I suspect this is how she wanted me to feel, if she wasn't trying to get me fired outright. Now I kind of hate my local Mums. It's a private forum, so it must have been one of them, but I don't know which of them grassed me up, so I'm tempted to be suspicious of all of them.

This is what they teach you to do in anti-racism training: To be an ally of oppressed minorities, you have to Say Something when you see someone being racist, or not being anti-racist enough. If you don't Say Something, you're complicit in racism and therefore racist yourself. That's how this ideology turns people against each other. In totalitarian regimes they had to provide incentives to make people turn in their neighbours to the authorities, but people will just do it for free because they don't want to be racist. I'm morbidly fascinated to see just how far that philosophy will take the most militant social conformists.