Continuing to drop some truth bombs in the NYT.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/o ... WEVA?amp=1

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but her hire has been a breath of fresh air over there.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

She's trash and Stephens is an even bigger waste of column space. Thank goodness Bennett's editorial page is now churning out piece after piece about what's really important these days: Twitter users and college students being big meanies to professionally connected pundits.

Dude had an amazing set of pipes.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

What is a "true" liberal? Who is the "other" side?

Denied.

She spent 800 largely disconnected words pointing a haughty finger at groups she doesn't like because they're pointing fingers at people?

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

How dare someone use the NYT editorial page to fight for 1st Amendment rights. Does it not scare you that law students don't think free speech should exist?

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

I'd imagine a true liberal is someone who stands up for traditionally liberal values such as freedom of expression.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

It's decent if you mix it with Shandy, but a full bottle on its own is a bit much.

Absolutely no hope.

Her anecdote on Christina Hoff Sommers was a good example. Then the article devolved into quoting Antifa's tweets criticizing people. Stretch!

_________________

Which definition of free speech is being conveniently used today? As a legalistic tool? As a robust social norm? It seems to change on a dime simply based on whether right wingers are doing the silencing or the ones being silenced.

It's also a bit rich that this grave concern about free speech is coming from Weiss, when she gained prominence precisely by trying to silence Arabic professors on campus herself. Then again, most of the brave so-called defenders of free speech on campus suddenly go silent when such rights are actually denied with far more impactful professional consequences to critics of Israel.

Frank has me blocked

You don't find it concerning when the Portland Lawyers Guild signed off on a letter which said:

“Freedom of speech is certainly an important tenet to a free, healthy society, but that freedom stops when it has a negative and violent impact on other individuals.”

-----

Furthermore, how is this a right winger being silenced? The speaker in question is a registered Democrat.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

so does half the board

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Is the Portland Lawyers Guild really antifa? I'd say they are pretty mainstream, which makes their views on free speech quite frightening.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

No not really. It's already not recognized as a completely universal right in the first place given trivial cases like clear and present danger exceptions, not to mention how frequently the idea as a robust social norm is discarded in all walks of life for a purely legal understanding. Beyond that, why aren't the letter and demonstration themselves not merely the exercise of free speech for free speech but instead somehow a threat to the First Amendment?

Sommers works for AEI and this speech was paid for by The Federalist Society. I think calling her right-wing is more than fair under the "walks like a duck" standard, despite whatever professional and rhetorical advantages declaring she's actually a Democrat has brought her.

The Portland Lawyers Guild was mentioned in the Christina Hoff Sommers anecdote. That example was a good one of crying. The rest of her examples were really lame.

Her piece could've been much stronger if she avoided using Bernstein's "people on twitter said XYZ."

I can agree with the latter, but I would say the overall case she makes is still valid as we are seeing these anti-free speech views creep from the fringes into the mainstream.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

From both "sides", yes, unquestionably.

It's a terrific way to divide people up into tribes or camps or whatever ... as to whether it's entirely organic or being orchestrated/cajoled is irrelevant insofar as the potential, hopefully not inevitable, negative consequences are concerned.

Regardless, it's quite clear that MANY folks sure seem to be addicted to their daily Two Minutes Hate.

_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

You've had rough go of it since the whole "give your life" thing. I'll let it slide. You'll find your groove again soon.

I guess if you're dumb enough to believe all Asian-Americans are immigrants by default, it's also pretty easy to believe Twitter accounts that say things like "Official Twitter Account for Antifa" are real.

yeah that's a bad look.

Still though, Rubin gets a lot of shit for just critiquing the insanity of identify politicking. Ben Shapiro was called a Nazi, for the love of God. The idea that Leftists aren't that cool with free speech isn't unfounded.

Good thing she based her article around actual petitions and letters put forth by mainstream left wing orgs such as the aforementioned DSA chapter in Portland or the local lawyers guild.

The use of one little tweet totally undoes that though and makes it seem like none of those orgs actually came out against free speech, right?

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

And anyone to the slight left of Clinton-style neoliberalism has been getting labeled as a raving communist for decades now. It's just that people like Weiss and Stephens and Chaits of the world don't write long articles about what meanies the people making those charges are and have no interest whatsoever in examining free speech in any context than their fellow pundits getting yelled at by college kids. It really is amazing the rapidity with which these hacks shift between calling out undergrads as special snowflakes who exaggerate the potential "violence" of speech and then crying that being no-platformed and namecalled by those same snowflakes does constitute violence and a free speech crisis.

It was literally the only other example presented of someone being called a fascist outside of Sommers in an article with the explicit premise that everyone is getting called a fascist these days.

i knew the article was gonna be good when it started with "Christina Hoff Summers" -- IIRC, she's the oldschool (second wave?) feminist who pisses off all the trigglypuffs nowadays cuz she'll speak some un/common sense, such as the STEM degree "inequality" stuff mentioned in the first paragraph of this article. evidently she's not much of an "ally" to "the cause" nowadays, so she's been branded a fascist like holy shit you know mussolini would be rolling in his grave (not too differently than he was rolling through the streets before he eventually (presumably?) got to his grave) if he could see what the kids call "fascism" nowadays =D

_________________

I would say that multiple mainstream orgs signing a letter that states “Freedom of speech is certainly an important tenet to a free, healthy society, but that freedom stops when it has a negative and violent impact on other individuals.” is enough of an example. They didn't even let the speaker finish her comments.

If you want to go further into other examples, just look at what happens when Ben Shapiro (who didn't even vote for Trump and frequently criticizes him) shows up on a campus, if he is even allowed in that is.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Once again, the article is titled "We're All Fascists Now" yet could not muster up a single example of anyone actually being called that other than Sommers and the Twitter account Weiss fell for. As I've already pointed out to you, those organizations exercising their own free speech rights in encouraging a speaker not be given a platform at particular event is not in and of itself any kind of legal infringement on the First Amendment.

Finally, freedom of speech of course doesn't mean freedom to an audience or freedom from other people exercising their speech, as so many of all political stripes are quite fond of pointing out when it comes to workplace termination for the exercise of speech (an issue I'd say is a helluva lot threatening to the functioning any actual norm of free speech than snowflake pundits getting their feelings hurt by college kids).