When he’s old enough to understand, I look forward to telling my nephew that I remember the day Noam Chomsky trended on Twitter:
1 Like
I’m disappointed with Chomsky and Atwood for signing this, but I figure this is just a case of old people not knowing the full context of online cancel culture drama.
1 Like
We’re still allowed to punch 'em in the face like Spencer was, right?
Eh, I don’t think Atwood has any more novels left in her. Punch away.
3 Likes
lol
I haven’t read up on this much, but cancel culture has gone a bit overboard, I think. Yeah, cancel the assholes you catch on social media/video/audio saying terrible shit. I’m fine with that. Punch nazis. Shame racists.
But canceling people/things/organizations for stuff they did 20, 30, 50 years ago? Come on. Have some nuance. Have a conversation. Use the problematic thing as a learning piece. Boycotting something for an ad they ran in WWI is stupid. OK, that’s an extreme hypothetical, but not understanding how culture and rhetoric evolves is like when deplorables scream about how Republicans freed the slaves and Democrats were segregationists.
Maybe that’s not what Chomsky and Atwood et al were talking about, but the only thing that comes from hiding our shitty past away is…well…where we are now in this country, with 40% of people thinking that racism is over.
4 Likes
Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes.
3 Likes
just ludicrous, Chomsky has been an ardent free speech absolutist for decades.
First I’ve heard of this, but lol at how publications like the business insider and the wall street journal who go decades not mentioning Chomsky are all over him signing this.
4 Likes
Always worth the watch even if the yootoobs are very long
3 Likes
If you consider his age and his political tendencies, being a free speech absolutist was non-negotiable during his formative years.
1 Like
Right, of course people like Chomsky and Rushdie who were subjected to vigorous attempts by state and nonstate actors to control their speech and their allies speech are free speech absolutists. Saying they don’t understand what they’re signing is ludicrous.
I’m not sure what the anti cancel culture people oppose. Who has been "cancelled " that shouldn’t have been?
3 Likes
This whole debate is another BS manufactured “both sides” charade. Sure we’re putting kids in cages and taking away health care and looting the country but youre mean on twitter, cancels out, get 'em next year.
8 Likes
Right, but what specifically are they opposed to? Is it the statues?
She also might have been friends with Ghislaine Maxwell
https://twitter.com/margaretatwood/status/125079946564599808?s=21
Yeah, I’d say Rushdie knows something more about cancel culture than some schmuck who got de-platformed by Facebook.
1 Like
This is a good piece on some specific examples, although I think Taibbi got canceled after this. Sad!
2 Likes
Stuff like this:
and:
2 Likes
lmaooo Bari Weiss signed the letter about cancel culture??
The same Bari that tried to silence professors with anti-Israel views?
6 Likes