Sharon Osbourne has long been the beloved, straight-shooting counterpart to Ozzy Osbourne's craziness.  That all ended last week when Osbourne dared to say people have the right to different opinions and should be allowed to express those opinions without being canceled.  For this heresy, Osbourne is about to be canceled.

It began when Piers Morgan said he did not believe Meghan Markel's claims that the Royal Family ignored her suicidal feelings and were racist toward her son.  After a fight with his co-hosts on Good Morning Britain, Morgan stormed off the set.  He then doubled down on his statement.  Good Morning Britain tried to force him to apologize, but he quit instead.

As an aside, Meghan Markel, who is making noises about running for president, made a formal complaint to Ofcom, the British government's office of communications.  Think about that: a woman who, God forbid she wins, will swear to protect the Constitution, and who is now one of the most wealthy and famous people in the world, complained to the government because someone hurt her feelings.  But I digress...

For those who don't know, Osbourne is part of a CBS show called The Talk.  One of her co-hosts, Sheryl Underwood, is black.  She contends that the only reason Morgan could have challenged Meghan's self-centered, narcissistic, whiny narrative is that Meghan is vaguely black.

Underwood didn't use those terms.  Instead, she conceded that Morgan had not said anything racist.  The problem, she said, was "the implication and the reaction to it to not want to address that, because she is a black woman, and to try and dismiss it or to make it seem less and it is.  That's what makes it racist."

Let me translate: if you ever challenge a black person's statements, you are a racist.

Osbourne had the peculiarly old-fashioned notion that this is not the way it's supposed to work.  "I know he has a right to say what he feels on the interview, as we have a right to say and everybody has a right to say what they feel with freedom of speech."

This was consistent with Osbourne's earlier tweet, stating, "@piersmorgan I am with you. I stand by you. People forget that you're paid for your opinion and that you're just speaking your truth."

I dislike the phrase "your truth," which is a dishonest way to elevate opinion into an unchallengeable factual statement.  Still, Osbourne stumbled upon using it the correct way in her message to Morgan because, as she said, he is paid for his opinion, and he gave it.

For those who espouse classic liberal ideas, Osbourne's take on the matter is entirely consistent with the notion of free speech in a free society.  Up until a short time ago, it was considered a laudable and correct approach to speech.  Scarily, the same people who have way too much control over speech have entirely abandoned this notion.

As is the case with all celebrities who violate the new woke shibboleths, other than Morgan himself, Osbourne later apologized for daring to defend her friend:

Osbourne need not have bothered.  There was blood in the water.  CBS, which seemingly has come under the total control of hard-leftist despots, has canceled two upcoming shows so it can probe Osbourne's debate with Underwood.

Not coincidentally, it just emerged for the first time that Osbourne had called a former costar, Holly Robinson Peete, "too ghetto" for the show.  This has the sound of a statement intended to add an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise unconvincing narrative.  Osbourne denied the claim, and she has contemporaneous evidence to support her denial.

I find all the details boring, but you can read them here if you are interested.  What's important is that we are in the midst of a sustained, powerful attack on one of the most important freedoms underlying human liberty, and that is the freedom of speech.  If you are white and you are not woke — with woke meaning willing to abandon all concepts of human liberty and equality — you will be silenced.

There is an old saying: use it or lose it.  When it comes to speech, we had better use it now to defend our rights to have it, or we will lose it forever.  Even if you are not white or you think you are woke, you should still defend free speech.  As Pastor Martin Niemöller famously discovered, if you are silent when the rights of others are under assault, the totalitarians will still come for you, and there will be no one left to speak for you.

Image: Sharon Osbourne.  YouTube screen grab.