Re: [Marxism] Freedom Means Can Rather Than Should: What the Harper's Open Letter Gets Wrong | Literary Hub
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As a person who deals with both gender and sexuality-derived bigotry
because of queerness, I understand the impulse here but frankly find all
the responses a tad childish.
Freedom of speech is defined by the right to not have your exercise of
speech punished or repressed BY THE STATE.
What lies at the core of this argument is the following scenario:
Activists are successfully organizing crowds to reject granting venues for
certain speakers. Some of the aggrieved are facing further repercussions
for their bad opinions via firing from work.
When it is a matter of state compelling the excommunication, expulsion, or
job termination of a certain party, that is wrong. That needs to be opposed
vigorously precisely because it crosses a very dangerous line between the
citizenry and the state.
But when this is an engagement in the private sphere, lacking any kind of
imposition or endorsement from the state (as is the case here), that's
actually just another dimension of the First Amendment being exercised,
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION. You as a private individual do not have the right
to impose yourself onto other individuals and force their engagement with
you. A Klansman does not have the right to say to me "You must grant me a
forum and debate by default."
Furthermore, look at the power dynamics. All the aggrieved parties in this
are rich liberals with a substantial audience and access to powerful
forums. Besides her rather repulsive gender politics, JK Rowling is a
gazillionaire children's book author who played a predominant role in the
whole Jeremy Corbyn/Labour Party "anti-semitism" fracas <
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jk-rowling-attacks-saint-jeremy-in-biblical-tweet/>.
She's a dyed-in-wool neoliberal who was thick as thieves with Gordon Brown.
This is a tempest in a teapot.
--
Best regards,
Andrew Stewart
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2020 13:39:53 -0400
From: Michael Meeropol
To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Freedom Means Can Rather Than Should: What the
Harper's Open Letter Gets Wrong | Literary Hub
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
So the reason this letter is no good is because it was signed by J.K.
Rowling and doesn't mention the fight for LGBTQ rights?
So Noam Chomsky is guilty by association?
All American communists were Stalinist mass murderers by association??
All black men have to answer for a black rapist? All gay people have to
answer for a single child molester? (or a mass murderer like Juan Corona)
All Jews have to answer for Benjamin Netanyahu?
After reading this piece, I re-read the letter very carefully to see where
it denied the reality of trans people. Couldn't find it
Even THE BELL CURVE should be attacked and refuted not burned or taken
out of a library --- When Steven J. Gould refuted it, he first READ it!!
The writer seems to be asserting that the letter is wrong because it
implicitly (or specifically) defends the right of anti-trans bigots to
assert that there is no such thing as a truly trans person (ridiculous idea
but there are plenty of them) --- but all it really does is caution the
rest of us to resist the urge to PUNISH "wrong" speech -- that's what the
OTHER SIDE does all the time and we should not give them ammunition
https://lithub.com/freedom-means-can-rather-than-should-what-the-harpers-open-letter-gets-wrong/
>
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Re: [Marxism] Freedom Means Can Rather Than Should: What the Harper's Open Letter Gets Wrong | Literary Hub
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 7/9/20 1:39 PM, Michael Meeropol wrote: So the reason this letter is no good is because it was signed by J.K. Rowling and doesn't mention the fight for LGBTQ rights? Jesus Christ, Michael, what in the hell is the letter trying to remediate? Why don't you tell me which bad behavior it is meant to overcome? Transgender people and their supporters writing nasty Tweets to Rowling? What exactly is it that you think we need to fight against? Social media is the weapon of the weaponless. These people like Nick Lemann, Dean Emeritus of the Columbia Journalism School, can't get over the fact that anybody with a computer and an Internet connection can raise all sorts of hell. They remind me of the Vatican getting riled up over Gutenberg's printing press that would allow the commoners to compose a pamphlet that reflected their own needs, both religious and material. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Freedom Means Can Rather Than Should: What the Harper's Open Letter Gets Wrong | Literary Hub
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * So the reason this letter is no good is because it was signed by J.K. Rowling and doesn't mention the fight for LGBTQ rights? So Noam Chomsky is guilty by association? All American communists were Stalinist mass murderers by association?? All black men have to answer for a black rapist? All gay people have to answer for a single child molester? (or a mass murderer like Juan Corona) All Jews have to answer for Benjamin Netanyahu? After reading this piece, I re-read the letter very carefully to see where it denied the reality of trans people. Couldn't find it Even THE BELL CURVE should be attacked and refuted not burned or taken out of a library --- When Steven J. Gould refuted it, he first READ it!! The writer seems to be asserting that the letter is wrong because it implicitly (or specifically) defends the right of anti-trans bigots to assert that there is no such thing as a truly trans person (ridiculous idea but there are plenty of them) --- but all it really does is caution the rest of us to resist the urge to PUNISH "wrong" speech -- that's what the OTHER SIDE does all the time and we should not give them ammunition https://lithub.com/freedom-means-can-rather-than-should-what-the-harpers-open-letter-gets-wrong/ > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Freedom Means Can Rather Than Should: What the Harper's Open Letter Gets Wrong | Literary Hub
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Williams, who is half-black and half-white, doubtless partly desires this because of his own oft-stated discomfort with his blackness; it was he, after all, who described black fans of hip-hop in his first book, a 2010 memoir, as “psyching themselves up like child soldiers drunk off blood in some war-ravaged African province.” This is the kind of language that, had it been employed by a white critic describing jazz (a genre Williams ironically proclaims to enjoy) in the early 20th century, would have been both commonplace and nakedly racist, conjuring up a trope of Africa as a wild world that is meant to suggest not civilization or complexity, but war and savagery. Williams, whose entire career has been predicated on writing about race, wants as little to do with race as possible, explaining the letter’s feeble gesturing to the protests. https://lithub.com/freedom-means-can-rather-than-should-what-the-harpers-open-letter-gets-wrong/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
