Free Speech and Creepy Liberalism

There's this quote from somebody about removing the mote from your neighbor's eye that may apply here.

lest ye be nudged off shelves

this is striking me as pretty nuts

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3033839/japanese-brand-uniqlo-pulls-ad-after-accusations-defaming?

sorry is there a region thread I should take that to instead? On the face of it the story sounds like a stretch but it is crazy how long Japan denied its behaviour

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this, but I thought that this Osita Nwanevu piece, taking aim at a George Packer speech in praise of Christopher Hitchens, was very sharp:

This, it’s implied, is how discourse ought to be. Writers should argue fiercely about issues that matter, yes, but not so fiercely that they can’t grab drinks, settle up, and nominate each other for the Hitchens Prize. The world of ideas, as rendered by Packer, is a very different kind of place than the world where most human beings reside. Above them, the wise -- people like Packer, people like Hitchens --busy themselves with the ideas that shape, and occasionally end, the lives of the rest. This is a profession made noble by abstraction. When an idea is simply an idea, things can be civil. And when things are civil, things are pure.

That, anyway, is how things appear. Underneath, as Hitchens proved, esteemed writers are possessed of exactly the same impulses and biases -- the same rage and grievances -- as anybody else. Moreover, one can see in Packer’s ideal not only the emotional and moral distance that makes breezy punditry about distant wars possible, but also the roots of Packer’s preoccupation with social media, which has collapsed the gap between writers and the rest of the world. It subjects them to the anger and ridicule of people who haven’t a clue how charming Hitchens was in person and have no particular reason to care -- an untenably threatening development for those who believe social dynamics, more than the content of arguments themselves, are the infrastructure of their intellectual lives. For them, moral condemnation violates the sanctity of discourse itself, particularly if the target of criticism has had their intelligence established in all the usual ways -- the right degrees, the right bylines at the right places -- and particularly if the criticisms are made in strident tones.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/When-the-Culture-War-Comes-to/248016?key=6GN5vbBTWeO_wOewtnTLTtUPVP-vMc2s6ddnpGFShlC614HfRYgPtTGG5NjVlGkCSVMtc0dxVVNYbVV3TGZCYmM4eUkzcHdqYTJ0dnYxaTVHdzNyU2NwUHJmWQ

"Family Policy" was switched to an online format. Chidozie, the student who thought it "weird" that Anderson had asked about her professor’s Christianity in the sexuality class, was also in "Family Policy." Chidozie said she enjoyed attending Stone’s classes in person but was nevertheless relieved when the course moved online, because "it became difficult to learn when dealing with that kind of person in the classroom."

Some students vented in their course evaluations about their "frustration" that the last few weeks of class were held online because of the behavior of one student.

And other students, according to Stone, incorrectly assumed that the change to online was the professor’s prerogative. They complained in course evaluations that she "gave up on the class." The sexuality course had guest speakers scheduled, so online teaching wasn’t an option there. Instead, a police officer stood silently inside the classroom for several sessions.

Infuriating article.

http://www.oudaily.com/news/ou-gaylord-college-professor-uses-racial-slur-during-class-in/article_ddf0496e-4cff-11ea-9e80-fbaf7ab99bc3.html

i would say he 'spoke' it i.e. mentioned it rather than using it, but obviously that's impossible

this must be burning up someone's charts, because my university present used it one day alter to provide an urgent reminder of how committed the campus is to diversity and inclusion. and i would say this is the least woke place i have ever taught

name of that college is triggering

eclectic group of big names on this board
https://www.persuasion.community/p/our-board

rogues gallery of arseholes and mediocrities

mediocrities like kasparov?

I used the word and

is this gonna be one of those things where we find out two days from now that half those people didn't consent to being listed as 'advisors'

I found out about it from mcwhorters twitter feed so at least he is really on board

haha well yeah they do all seem pretty simpatico but

I thought about polling them

hard to choose between Hadley Freeman and Helen Lewis because they're basically the same person

Any group of people who self-claim the title of "intellectual community" is automatically deducted points even before they file their first manifesto.

what kind of creepy liberal thought leader cult doesn’t even have steven pinker

Guys stop belittling our freedoms

oh yeah they overlooked steven pinker maybe he'll sign on later

I love how this thread goes from idk is this really a thing why is it bad to this is obviously a thing and it’s terrible

Yascha Mounk hasn't said anything about Bolivia lately right?

but free speech isn't being curtailed if the government isn't preventing it. There's a reason why I can't just walk into my business and shout "EY, SUCK MY OLIVE-OIL SCENTED DICK K THX" and expect to still have my job the next day.

― Neanderthal, Monday, July 1, 2013 10:30 PM (seven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's very normal and cool that there's now an entire magazine devoted to ensuring that Neanderthal can just walk into his business and shout "EY, SUCK MY OLIVE-OIL SCENTED DICK K THX" and expect to still have his job the next day.

If they had called it "EY, SUCK MY OLIVE-OIL SCENTED DICK K THX" instead of Persuasion I honestly think it would have a better chance at being a going concern.

I do think there are cases where freedom of expression should be protected from incursions other than just the government and maybe this outlet will be a good voice; hard to say anything at this point, though.

It's entirely possible for a media oligopoly to shut out alternate viewpoints without the government stepping in at all - giving them free rein through the abolition of net neutrality, for instance.

Yeah, anyone on the left should be very wary of essentially delegating the final authority over individuals' speech and expression to employers and/or media platforms imo.

A statement signed by 150 people incl. Bill T. Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Noam Chomsky, J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie expresses concern over the illiberal trend intensified by our national reckoning.https://t.co/4zPjuPNXBu

— Harper's Magazine (@Harpers) July 7, 2020

those schmucks wish this were creepy liberalism

It’s such a great term bc it allows maximum ambiguity between creepy idpol ppl PC controlling speech and creepy anti idpol ppl using phantasm of the former to promote creepy opinions.

There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too.

And Here's Why: Suck an Egg

this letter is like coachella for bad faith takes writers

J3ss3 Sing@l is probably behind this

this is like the usual list plus a few surprises

is Chomsky mad that people still dunk on him for being pro-khmer rouge or is it people getting mad at him for always telling us to vote democrat while being an "anarchist" that has him shook?

I see at least 2 ppl on the Lolita Express flight logs

Never Have I Ever… Said 'It's Complicated'.

Chomsky mad and shook would be something to behold

Liberals gonna liberal.

I'm also going to say it: Reginald Dwayne Betts is a shitty fucking poet, and that the white poetry establishment is exploiting him and his story is remarkably easy to discern to anyone paying attention

chomsky has always been v pro free speech for fascists

basically

That letter in Harper’s:

Instructive to see this during a Black-led revolution against systemic racism and brutality in all institutions - not just the police.

At a time when voices long kept out of institutions are heard, so many voices most buoyed by institutions complain.

— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) July 7, 2020

noam agonizing over killer mike admitting to having read him

did bill cosby sign this letter

lol

lol

xp

are they calling themselves Coalition of the Cancelled yet?