Whoopi Goldberg epitomises the stupidity of the modern progressive mind

Telegraph

6 hours ago

Actor and daytime talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg has always been one of America's great provocateurs. But this week she traded provocation for plain old stupidity. Or at least a deep indifference to logic and truth.
On Wednesday, Goldberg was on The View, the mid-morning daily television programme she has co-hosted for years. This time the discussion centred on Iran, its war with Israel and the potential for US intervention.
Goldberg's co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin – who is both Arab-American and politically conservative – made what ought to have been a statement of the obvious: that Iranians live under extreme tyranny and repression, lacking basic freedoms, including over what they can wear. And when they have protested the oppression they must endure, they have faced violence – or, in the case of Mahsa Amini, even death. 'The Iranians literally throw gay people off of buildings,' noted Farah.
But Goldberg found it impossible to accept such a clear-sighted condemnation of a reprehensible theocratic regime. 'Let's not do that,' she countered. 'We have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car.' And her odious descent into compare and contrast moral relativism was just getting started.
Griffin tried to push back. 'I think it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran,' she said quite reasonably. 'Not if you're black,' Goldberg retorted.
No American could possibly pretend that their country is perfect, and it's impossible to ignore that many groups – my fellow African-Americans among them – still face serious challenges. But does Goldberg really think that things are as bad on the streets of the US as they are on the streets of Tehran, under an Islamist theocracy? Evidently, yes.
It's easy to blast Goldberg's political and intellectual myopia, but in many ways she's not to blame. Her moral relativism merely reflects the way in which identity politics has so corrupted Western minds that problems in our own societies are weaponised in order to shut down criticism of even the most appalling totalitarian regimes. It's the same thinking that has fuelled so much progressive activism since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. Who are we, they chortle, to criticise Hamas or the Ayatollahs when the US remains a nation still mired in injustice and inequality?
But there are vast differences between the 'regimes' in Washington and Tehran – including for African-Americans. They're so basic – free speech, the rule of law, freedom to protest, gay marriage – that it's almost comical to have to repeat them. There is no freedom of expression in Iran, no independent media or women's movement, no protection whatsoever for any of Iran's minority groups (or indeed for anyone at all).
But there's nothing comical about Goldberg's world view. Nearly 350 Iranians were executed by the state in the first four months of 2025 alone – a 75 per cent increase over 2024, according to a report from Iran Human Rights. And guess what, Goldberg? Political prisoners and minorities were heavily represented within these figures – none of whom have the luxury of a daily talk show from which to demand justice.
Because justice is non-existent in places like Iran and Gaza. The likes of Goldberg might point to the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin as evidence that the US is a similarly arbitrary and unjust society. The difference is that Chauvin sits in jail for killing Floyd, tried amid a media frenzy by both a jury and public opinion.
Mahsa Amini knew no such privilege when she was killed under police detention in 2022 for supposedly failing to adhere to Iran's strict dress codes for women. Goldberg's juvenile thinking – her belief that an America that allows her to pontificate on national television – is somehow as repressive as Iran stains the legacy of true heroes like Amini. Goldberg also undermines the very real need for continued reform in the US by insisting that we have as much catching up to do as the Iranians.
I'd almost suggest that she should take a trip to Tehran, to see for herself whether her risible comparison between Iranian tyranny and American freedom really stacks up. Judging by the wilful blindness of modern progressives, however, even seeing the horror of life under the ayatollahs up close would be unlikely to change her mind.