Last week, a Harvard affiliate asked me to sign a petition that concerns the apparently dire condition of “free speech” on campus. Not only I did I decline to sign the petition, but I became exercised. I suppose I’m sort of scooping the people who wrote and plan to disseminate the document, for which, sorry, sort of—but, since thinkers on the right are perennially making the points that appear in it, and since we can be assured that a similar petition is pretty much always in the works, and since I don’t intend to go into too much detail about the specifics of this particular petition, and since petitions of this sort tend to be nigh identical in all important respects, the Harvard affiliate’s email seems like as good an occasion as any to reflect on “freedom of speech” and whether it has anything whatsoever to do with what is often called “cancel culture.” Besides,
shut up about freedom of speech!!
shut up about freedom of speech!!
shut up about freedom of speech!!
Last week, a Harvard affiliate asked me to sign a petition that concerns the apparently dire condition of “free speech” on campus. Not only I did I decline to sign the petition, but I became exercised. I suppose I’m sort of scooping the people who wrote and plan to disseminate the document, for which, sorry, sort of—but, since thinkers on the right are perennially making the points that appear in it, and since we can be assured that a similar petition is pretty much always in the works, and since I don’t intend to go into too much detail about the specifics of this particular petition, and since petitions of this sort tend to be nigh identical in all important respects, the Harvard affiliate’s email seems like as good an occasion as any to reflect on “freedom of speech” and whether it has anything whatsoever to do with what is often called “cancel culture.” Besides,