Post by fretslider on Jul 8, 2020 4:11:49 GMT -5
Some 150 writers, academics and activists - including authors JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood - have signed an open letter denouncing the "restriction of debate".
They say they applaud a recent "needed reckoning" on racial justice, but argue it has fuelled stifling of open debate.
The letter denounces "a vogue for public shaming and ostracism" and "a blinding moral certainty".
Several signatories have been attacked for comments that caused offence.
"The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted," says the letter.
US intellectual Noam Chomsky, eminent feminist Gloria Steinem, Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and author Malcolm Gladwell also put their names to the letter, which was published on Tuesday in Harper's Magazine.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53330105
Of course this call for debate to be opened up didn't go down well with the intolerant left:
DC Sentinel reporter, Sam Sacks, chimed in, saying: “Look at who signed this letter, you can tell this is more about wealthy elites in the industry not wanting to face consequences for their past (and current) work as war criminal propagandists, plagiarists, transphobes, and associates of Epstein.”
Nathan J Robinson
@nathanjrobinson
Not only does this letter fail to provide any evidence for its dire warnings implying the left is intolerant, but it echoes Trump’s Mt Rushmore speech, which warned that “cancel culture” is one of the biggest threats to the country. A shame to see some good people sign this crap.
www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/07/j-k-rowling-signs-open-letter-calling-for-an-end-to-cancel-culture/
Meanwhile, the right wasn't much impressed, either:
“I see only a collection of spineless liberals who never spoke out when cancel culture came for conservatives but now express concern when it’s affecting the intelligentsia. And how do they respond? With mild chiding, as if the far left are children to be scolded,” wrote Human Events managing editor Ian Miles Cheong.
“Hilariously ridiculous. And several people on there who have tried to cancel me personally. The weakness of liberalism is totally out in the open,” replied YouTuber Dave Rubin.
www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/07/j-k-rowling-signs-open-letter-calling-for-an-end-to-cancel-culture/
implying the left is intolerant
You have to laugh at the level of cognitive dissonance in that statement.
Even as statues continue to fall, these people claim there is no culture war against the values of the past. Even as likenesses of George Washington are burnt and abused and monuments to Christopher Columbus are decapitated and daubed with slurs, they insist there’s no culture war – except from those who say ‘Leave the statues alone’, of course. Even as JK Rowling continues to be subjected to a slurry of misogynistic insults – telling her to ‘suck a lady dick’ or ‘fuck off and die’ – they claim there is no serious culture of intolerance. Even as people literally lose their jobs for criticising BLM, they say PC cancellation is a myth dreamt up by right-wingers.
www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/06/the-tyranny-of-cancel-culture/
As George Orwell might have said:
Unity is racism.
They say they applaud a recent "needed reckoning" on racial justice, but argue it has fuelled stifling of open debate.
The letter denounces "a vogue for public shaming and ostracism" and "a blinding moral certainty".
Several signatories have been attacked for comments that caused offence.
"The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted," says the letter.
US intellectual Noam Chomsky, eminent feminist Gloria Steinem, Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and author Malcolm Gladwell also put their names to the letter, which was published on Tuesday in Harper's Magazine.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53330105
Of course this call for debate to be opened up didn't go down well with the intolerant left:
DC Sentinel reporter, Sam Sacks, chimed in, saying: “Look at who signed this letter, you can tell this is more about wealthy elites in the industry not wanting to face consequences for their past (and current) work as war criminal propagandists, plagiarists, transphobes, and associates of Epstein.”
Nathan J Robinson
@nathanjrobinson
Not only does this letter fail to provide any evidence for its dire warnings implying the left is intolerant, but it echoes Trump’s Mt Rushmore speech, which warned that “cancel culture” is one of the biggest threats to the country. A shame to see some good people sign this crap.
www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/07/j-k-rowling-signs-open-letter-calling-for-an-end-to-cancel-culture/
Meanwhile, the right wasn't much impressed, either:
“I see only a collection of spineless liberals who never spoke out when cancel culture came for conservatives but now express concern when it’s affecting the intelligentsia. And how do they respond? With mild chiding, as if the far left are children to be scolded,” wrote Human Events managing editor Ian Miles Cheong.
“Hilariously ridiculous. And several people on there who have tried to cancel me personally. The weakness of liberalism is totally out in the open,” replied YouTuber Dave Rubin.
www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/07/j-k-rowling-signs-open-letter-calling-for-an-end-to-cancel-culture/
implying the left is intolerant
You have to laugh at the level of cognitive dissonance in that statement.
Even as statues continue to fall, these people claim there is no culture war against the values of the past. Even as likenesses of George Washington are burnt and abused and monuments to Christopher Columbus are decapitated and daubed with slurs, they insist there’s no culture war – except from those who say ‘Leave the statues alone’, of course. Even as JK Rowling continues to be subjected to a slurry of misogynistic insults – telling her to ‘suck a lady dick’ or ‘fuck off and die’ – they claim there is no serious culture of intolerance. Even as people literally lose their jobs for criticising BLM, they say PC cancellation is a myth dreamt up by right-wingers.
www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/06/the-tyranny-of-cancel-culture/
As George Orwell might have said:
Unity is racism.