So, here's the deal -- you have the right to say whatever you want. As long as we agree with you.

That's the lesson once again learned after the fiasco at this week's Miss America beauty pageant when one of the judges, the reptilian blogger Perez Hilton, asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean, if she supported gay marriage.

It was an odd question, and not the kind of thing you normally hear asked at an event more used to discussing the importance of working with blind, disadvantaged black babies in darkest Africa.

But Hilton was quick to show disgust and amazement when Prejean replied that, actually, on balance, she reckoned marriage was better suited between a man and a woman, prompting Hilton to call her "a dumb bitch" live on air.

And, in the days since then, Prejean has been completely shunned by the modelling industry and her sponsors and people have been queuing up to portray her as the kind of person who likes to spend their free time going on queer bashes.

It's despicable, of course, that a young woman should be so vilified simply for the crime of holding an opinion that is unpopular in Hollywood and entertainment circles, but remains hugely divisive in ordinary America.

According to Hilton: "When I first heard her answer, I was shocked, because I thought having been from California, a state that recently passed Proposition 8 outlawing same-sex marriage, she should have been better prepared to answer that question."

So, according to this fuzzy logic, because a woman comes from a state which has banned gay marriage she should be in favour of it?

As it happens, I'm all for same-sex civil union or gay marriage or whatever you want to call it. After all, it's not fair that straight people have a monopoly on misery and if Adam and Steve want to set up home together, then good luck to them, it's none of my business.

But showing the growing tyranny of enforced liberalism, Hilton further expounded that: "There are various other ways she could have answered that question and still stayed true to herself without alienating millions of people."

Translation: she should have lied and abandoned her principles rather than annoy a professional fag like Hilton, a man who embodies the worst stereotypes of homosexuality with his camp bitchiness and utter shallowness.

But it's not just Hilton; there's a whole blanket of suppression of thought and speech imposed by self-confessed liberals and their particular agendas.

After all, when you have some idiot like the Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe asking the Indo's John Meagher "are you a denier?" simply because Meagher pointed out that thousands of scientists signed a letter rubbishing the accepted myth of global warming, you can see the levels of arrogance and hubris held by these people.

It was the kind of retarded, childish bullying we have come to expect from the Left both here in Ireland and, at its worst, in Britain and America.

This is best illustrated by the laughable phrase 'No free speech for fascists' (although, I must admit to being inordinately delighted when that was chanted at me by some hecklers at a debate last year) -- in five small words they have proved irrevocably that there is nothing more intolerant than a liberal.

Sure, they are happy to allow Muslim savages like Anjem Choudhary come to this country and preach his brand of morally bankrupt, racist and sexually confused hatred against gays, Christians, Jews, women and anyone else who doesn't buy into his bestial beliefs. But, according to the liberal multi-culturalists, he is part of an oppressed minority, and therefore is given a moral free pass.

Compare that to David Irving, the thoroughly discredited but highly intelligent revisionist historian who has been forcibly stopped from speaking here on numerous occasions.

So, apparently it's okay to stop someone from flying in the face of all evidence and denying the Holocaust, while it is perfectly acceptable to welcome someone who would like to start another one. This totalitarian intolerance comes from the innate smugness and sense of moral superiority which most of these fools wallow in.

And, in just as stifling a manner as the strictest religious orthodoxy, anyone who steps outside the clearly delineated lines of the liberal agenda is immediately treated as some sort of apostate who must be ridiculed, silenced and, ideally, ruined.

This has happened to numerous Republican-supporting actors, for instance, such as Law And Order's Angie Harmon, who has been refreshingly vocal about the fact that there is a silent conspiracy among Hollywood's elite.

You attend the right fundraisers, donate to the right cause and dutifully follow the party line.

This means that, for instance, if you have the temerity to not actually believe that George Bush is worse than Hitler, then you're a blood-thirsty warmonger who wants to nuke everyone.

This was perfectly illustrated in South Park's Death Camp Of Tolerance were the kids are brought to a tolerance museum and culturally indoctrinated into being tolerant of everything -- until they get outside and the teacher, seeing a person smoking, starts to scream and berate them. It seems that we have collectively lost the ability to realise that people of good conscience can simply disagree with each other on things.

I know people who are pro-life and, while I don't agree with them, that is their right.

But the worst thing the cause of gay marriage can have as its symbol is someone like Perez Hilton. And it would be nice to think that any sensible gay bloke out there who saw his comments and behaviour would have grimaced and realised that this is not the way to go about things.

The current culture wars currently being waged are perhaps best summed up by South Park's Matt Stone who says: "I hate conservatives. But I really f***ing hate liberals."

And you can't argue with that.