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Dipping into some old @ggreenwald articles has reminded me of a couple elemental truths: 1) The suppression of pro-Palestinian speech is just off the charts. I'm talking state laws, well-organized blacklists, and sophisticated international surveillance operations. It's unreal.
Yes, international surveillance. Yes, threats against university professors by private intelligence operations. It's happening, and it's happening right now. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-a-private-israeli-intelligence-firm-spied-on-pro-palestinian-activists-in-the-us
Yes, a well-funded blacklist that collects and publicizes pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic speech by college students, faculty, and random people, all with the explicit goal of rendering them unemployable. https://theintercept.com/2018/11/22/israel-boycott-canary-mission-blacklist/
And oh by the way, this information is then used by Israeli and American law enforcement. https://theintercept.com/2018/06/24/students-for-justice-in-palestine-fbi-sjp/
Yes, actual laws (federal, state, and municipal) designed to quash pro-Palestinian speech and expressive acts. It's happening around the globe. https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1205890652027916288
I'm also reminded that for every Colin Wright or Emil Kirkegaard, there is a Sarah Ihmoud that gets 1/100th of the sympathetic press. https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1197533653120761858
But that brings me to 2) Attacks on campus free speech and academic freedom are virtually never acceptable. What happened to Steve Salaita is inexcusable and the presence of Cary Nelson's signature on the Harper's letter is a scandal.
But if what happened to Salaita outrages you on free speech or academic freedom grounds, I hope that what happened to Dennis Bell outrages you too. https://www.wbrz.com/news/university-of-louisiana-monroe-acts-against-racist-posts-by-faculty
Or Mohamed Aboul-Seoud, who sounds like a real asshole but shouldn't have lost his job for it. https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/RPI-professor-ousted-after-students-expose-15330931.php
To say nothing of John Tieso. https://www.thecollegefix.com/professor-plans-to-sue-catholic-university-for-firing-him-over-tweets-criticizing-powerful-democrats/
Or Mary Holmes. https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/education/2020/07/11/nursing-professor-who-used-racial-slur-no-longer-at-ulm/3193863001/
All are faculty who lost their jobs for extramural political speech in just the last two months. The fact that they are also on the political Right, or that many of them are stone cold racists, doesn't make that any more just. Obviously.
Look, the tenor of our public debate around CC and campus free speech is ludicrously imbalanced. How else can you explain the near total lack of outrage surrounding this? It's inexplicable, except in terms of anti-Palestinian bias. https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1284210754716078081
Or the fact that when you run a search for "Canary Mission" at Reason Magazine (America's clearinghouse for PC-run-amok hot takes), the only relevant result is a blogpost defending it against charges of bigotry.
It's a clear double standard. The fact that I feel moved to reiterate it here is testament to how effectively the Harper's crowd has set the terms of debate.
Many are ignorant. Some are hypocrites. Either one is inexcusable.
But nor is it excusable for us to turn a blind eye to the terminations of conservative faculty for their speech. It's a mutual, joint-stock world. Either we care about academic free speech or we don't.
But nor is it excusable for us to turn a blind eye to the terminations of conservative faculty for their speech. It's a mutual, joint-stock world. Either we care about academic free speech or we don't.
So here's where I come down. The Left needs to do a much better job policing attempts to get faculty fired or students punished for legal, protected speech. It's getting worse, not better. We have to act.
But it is still barely a speck, a smidgeon, a microscopic point on the global campaign against pro-Palestinian speech. And if you can't appreciate that fact -- if you're passionate about free speech but not up in arms about all this -- then you need to check your priorities.
Those who refuse to do so should not be viewed as respectable people.
UPDATE: Not to pull a Yascha Mounk here, but I’ve already received a DM from a prof (tenured, no less) explaining that while they liked my thread, they were too scared to “Like” it. Says a lot.
