We don’t know who wrote this collective editorial.
I’ll put money on John McWhorter, the official “oh-so-articulate Black best friend” of the NYT’s well-heeled and privileged white readership, being one of the co-authors of this muddle-headed piece. He’s been beating a particularly disingenuous drum against “cancel culture” for months now.
People have a Constitutional right (with certain limited SCOTUS-approved exceptions) to say what they want in the U.S. without government censorship. Other people and institutions in the U.S. can avail themselves of that same right to criticise and de-platform* and otherwise impose consequences on people when they say something offensive.
I’m afraid, dear NYT editorial board, that shunning and shaming and associated hurt fee-fees may be amongst those consequences. As might be criticism and outside fact-checking of distinguished NYT journalists (e.g. Judith Miller, Jayson Blair) and columnists (e.g. Bobo, Cardinal Douthat).
[* e.g. a certain newspaper of record’s shunning of shameful hate speech]
As always for our newcomers (esp. white Libertarian dudebros and right-wing snowflakes and visitors from the wizarding world of TERFs), the obligatories…
To the same folks: your “mind-blowing” and “brilliant” arguments in favour of free speech absolutism aren’t as original or novel as you think they are:
