Have you or @heng ever read “The Mists of Avalon”? Bradley subtly digs at the origins of the St George’s flag in a thoroughly enjoyable way. Basically, it’s seen as Arthur’s surrender of the island’s pagan heritage expressed as the Pendragon and acquiescence to the Papacy.
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It’s kinda weird- because large testicles is a sign sign of testicular cancer.
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I hope we don’t throw that very important baby out with the bathwater of right wing nonsensical misapplication.
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Seems unlikely. What constitutes the left in the US, and even common sense really, can easily distinguish between claims of actual stolen/censored free speech and bleatings from wingnuts about being properly deplatformed and such.
Unless you’re seeing a threat that I’m unaware of?
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It needs a mob of deplorable terrorists behind him.
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“Only approved speech can be published.”
Bullshit. My dad wrote and published a book, and he’s a nobody. Just did it for fun, a sort of memoir of some of his outdoor exploits.
I’ve been hearing anti free speech/academic freedom stuff from some of my younger colleagues for a few years now, and a keynote speaker at a recent conference making the claim that these are White supremacist concepts.
I fear that when people only see the Hawleys and Milos ranting about free speech (insert XKCD comic here) - and that THOSE are brought to campus because Free Speech while radical leftists can’t be because of budget reasons, free speech is seen as a right for racist white men to have a platform, which isn’t something to get terribly excited about.
It seems to me that it isn’t as obvious as it should be that if we canned free speech or academic freedom as a value, the right wingers would be fine, but a lot of good work would be stopped. But hopefully it is and my worry is misplaced.
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I get what you’re saying, but I dont think that deplatforming-- a la refusing to fund Nazi speeches or provide them a legitimizing venue-- constitutes the “canning of free speech.” They’d still be entirely free to rant on the sidewalk along with haranguing preacher dudes. As for academic freedom, I sense that far-right assholes get a lot more leeway in that regard (e.g., Jordaddy).
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Oh, yeah, I agree with you. 100%. I do not think deplatforming is canning free speech as a value. My worry is that we will can free speech as a value because we only ever see it used to justify giving Nazis a platform.
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I also see plenty of attacks on artistic expression (in my opinion the only time “both sides do it” is unqualifiably true), but again it’s not a 1A issue but a platform issue… And one that would be hopefully be mitigated by implementing UBI so artists didn’t have to beg for scraps on Patreon and the like.
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The problem is that Nazis have already abandoned the notion of free speech. As ever, it comes down to an imbalance in the meaning behind common language as used by different groups. When Nazis say “I want my free speech” they universally mean “I deserve to be heard by as many people as possible and any attempt to even counter my argument is an offense that should be subject to legal punishment”, whereas people who oppose the freedom of speech for Nazis are usually opposed to it because the Nazis are calling for the destruction of democracy and the violent subjugation of those they consider inferior.
It’s basically “so much for the tolerant left” with more appeals to the constitution.
I feel like there are ways to qualify “free speech” in at least the colloquial (aka “not the government telling you what you’re allowed to say”) sense that exclude expressions which advocate for the violation of fundamental human rights without endangering actual freedom of expression.
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There’s something off putting about the way public servants convert political loyalties into cold hard cash through book deals. Certainly, the “view from the top” is a marketable one, but “300 pages of ghostwritten prose” shouldn’t be worth all that much.
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this is a good time to use the word, Comeuppance.
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Sorry Elijah, Abigail and Blaise, but your dad is a treasonous little weaselturd who may end up unemployed real soon.
Erin, you may want an audit of your family assets now, just to make sure he isn’t going to be hiding money to avoid future child support.
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The simple fact that he wrote his book while at the bottom of the rabbit hole makes anything else that he asserts highly questionable. Like many juveniles, he immediately turns to the “I’m being picked on” refrain. Heaven save us from politicians who won’t or can’t check their own “facts”.
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Such a great way to simultaneously “sanitize” the money used to purchase political influence via the publishing house. Older way used to involve selling expensive property dirt cheap to politicos or family members connected to them.
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