Status Updates From The Case Against Free Speec...

The last chapters on college campus free speech battles has not been as engaging to me as what came before. I’m also a little bothered by his outrage at stuff conservatives are doing which he would celebrate if done by leftists. I think it loses sight of his larger point, which is that it is the message that matters: it’s not that fascists are bad for influencing policy, but because they promote FASCISM.

I’n in a section now about the “free speech” debate in college campuses, which could be more accurately framed as the debate about whether to listen to students of color (so-called conservatives say “no”). Moskowitz refers a lot to Stanley Fish here, one of the only authors on free speech, which is ironic because Fish (stupidly) believes colleges can and should be apolitical, whatever that means.

I’m very much enjoying this book and writing down a LOT of quotes. It’s a great follow-up to CHAOTIC NEUTRAL because in a lot of ways it has a similar thesis: the framing of the “free speech” debate is driven by right-wingers and isn’t about speech at all but about political power, yet liberals and the media have accepted their terms without question. Once you name it, it’s so obvious and enraging.

I wrote a tweet once (back when Twitter was still a thing) which played off a lyric from ‘Hamilton’ and which I still think of often: “Raise a glass to freedom, that’s something they can never take away… because it’s a meaningless buzzword.” It seems Moskowitz is making a similar argument about “free speech”, with the added question: who does supposedly “free” speech *really* benefit? 🤔