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I& #39;ve no trouble believing they sincerely worry that "This stifling atmosphere [of professional consequences for their friends and colleagues] will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time". That isn& #39;t an alternative to the "class solidarity" explanation, it& #39;s part of it!
They aren& #39;t protecting their class interests in the narrow sense of (only) avoiding accountability for themselves and their friends, they& #39;re protecting their class interests in the ideological sense of genuinely believing that what& #39;s good for them is good for everyone
Not, to be clear, that it& #39;s good for everyone to have the same protections they have, but that it& #39;s good for everyone for *them* to have those protections, that the fate of civilization depends on the public discourse they graciously shepherd
They care less about what happens to the rest of us not (just) because they don& #39;t give a shit about the proles but (also) because they think that if one anonymous worker gets fired it sucks for that person, but if a journalist gets fired the consequences for the future are dire
You have to believe that history is made by powerful individuals being moved by powerful ideas, and that it is the solemn responsibility—the vocation—of media elites to cultivate and protect those ideas, and that if they can& #39;t do their jobs we will all suffer for it
At bottom it& #39;s class interests in the crude sense. But since it& #39;s hard to maintain a deliberate lie but easy to cast yourself as a hero, we get values systems that reify the interests of elites, i.e. ideology
Many (e.g. @arguendope& #39;s excellent piece) have observed that the letter conspicuously ignores the precarity of all other work. He& #39;s right and the point is well taken but IMO it& #39;s also worth wondering whether they don& #39;t care or just think this *is* caring https://medium.com/@juliustheintern/a-letter-on-just-us-72b6b7cda77c">https://medium.com/@juliusth...
The same goes for @hamiltonnolan& #39;s nice piece in In These Times and a few dozen tweets and threads. I take myself to be expanding on the point, not disagreeing with it! http://inthesetimes.com/article/22648/free-speech-labor-journalism-harpers-coddling-elites">https://inthesetimes.com/article/2...
