{UAH} ASSAULT ON OPEN SPEECH IS AN ATTACK ON AMERICA

Assault on open speech is an attack on America

by Washington Examiner,  

 

June 15, 2020 12:00 AM

There are two sides in the defining fight ripping America apart, and they aren't Republicans and Democrats. The fight is between those who believe that open speech is essential to preserving the nation and those who believe in narrowing the debate and favor cultural erasure.

For years, we have lamented an alarming trend on college campuses in which students have bullied administrators into creating safe spaces by disinviting college speakers who challenge their worldview and issuing "trigger warnings" on books they dislike. Now, America is turning into the Oberlin College campus.

This month, New York Times Editorial Page Editor James Bennet was forced to resign for the crime of having run the section that published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton arguing that the military should be sent in to stop rioters (to be clear, not peaceful protesters). The mere act of publishing a senator's piece advocating an opinion held by a majority of the public triggered rebellion among members of the woke staff, who dramatically claimed that printing it put the lives of black employees in danger.

In addition to Bennet's resignation, another senior editor was reassigned, and leadership up to the publisher said that publishing the senator's opinion was a big mistake. In addition to adding a lengthy editor’s note to the top of the article, the New York Times vowed to overhaul its editing process and start accepting fewer op-eds. Translation: Don’t expect any outside viewpoints that can’t pass muster with the woke crowd. Kathleen Kingsbury, who assumed the role of acting editorial page editor, made this abundantly clear when she wrote to staffers that if anyone sees “any piece of Opinion journalism — including headlines or social posts of photos or you name it — that gives you the slightest pause, please call or text me immediately.”

In a parallel development this month, HBO announced that it would remove Gone with the Wind from its HBO Max streaming service because it “depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society." The Civil War epic, which is the highest-grossing film in history adjusted for inflation, includes a strong female lead and marked the first time a black actor or actress won an Oscar. Though its view of the Old South is romanticized and its portrayal of slavery is sanitized, it remains an important window into how Southerners viewed the momentous conflict and its aftermath. Instead of trusting viewers to watch the movie with the understanding that it portrays life in the 1860s (and does so with the sensibilities of the 1930s), HBO said it would put the film back on its service only when it can add “a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions.” In other words, trigger warnings are now being issued for adults.

Given that public attitudes evolve over time, if we get into the habit of canceling anything offensive by today’s standards, we’d have to purge the arts every few years, making it impossible to have an enduring culture.

Debate does not necessarily fall on typical partisan lines. Many liberals, particularly older liberals who grew up valuing the open debate of ideas, are just as appalled as conservatives are at the culture of caving to the outrage mob.

Andrew Sullivan, one of the foremost defenders of President Barack Obama, was incensed by the New York Times's decisions. He noted that “groveling won’t appease the social justice mob. Each time they notch a victory, they move the goalposts. The NYT editors have effectively ceded their authority permanently. A woke committee already vets everything. Now it will be super-charged. And readers now know this is no longer a paper dedicated to the truth.”

Meanwhile, J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels and a self-described liberal feminist, wrote a lengthy essay on her personal website to explain her fears about how transgender activists are endangering young women. The once-beloved writer, who calculates that she has been canceled at least four or five times, has been attacked for merely pointing out that biological sex is real. She has been branded by activists as a “TERF,” or trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

The New York Times is obviously free to publish whoever it wants, and nobody has a right to its platform. So, too, can a private streaming service decide what content to offer. For this reason, we prefer the term “open speech” to “free speech” in these controversies.

But the erosion of the principle of open debate is a dangerous trend, especially given that one day, younger generations will grow up and take over the government. A YouGov poll taken a few years ago found that just 46% of college students thought that the First Amendment protected hate speech.

A republic in which people are not tolerant of those who disagree, in which the mob aims to erase parts of culture that are uncomfortable, is not one that can long endure.

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

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