A group of intellectuals, thinkers, writers have come together to sign a letter defending free speech and free exchange.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/arts/harpers-letter.html?
As the article concludes: “It’s a defense of people being able to speak and think freely without fear of punishment or retribution, of the right to disagree and not fear for your employment.”
A lot of these are well known intellectuals and writers from diverse walks of life. Many got flak from the woke crowd, and some even hastened to apologize and perform self-criticism.
This is the type of considered, conscienced plea that is being drowned now by the ‘liberated masses’ ranting on twitter.
Was this how it was like in China in the 1960s?
I feel scared for the future.
Clinton was a great president.
Bush pushed the US far to the right (by the standards of 2000).
Obama came and was a welcome breath of fresh air. But the right hated him and reacted, and after being stonewalled and insulted by the right for years, Obama himself started tilting far left in response.
In 2016 Obama instructed schools to support transgender. That was ultra sensitive. Title IX hadn’t ben tested like this before, but now was essentially being used to justify treating females (and males who chose to feel female for the day) the same.
Many people including me were uncomfortable with that.
As a real teacher (not a twitter lecturer), I am perfectly aware that 15 year old boys will do everything they can to sneak into the girls’. You can see examples of the brilliant young male mind at work in movies like Private School, where guys dress like girls in order to peep on girls.
I thought Obama's edict on transgender bathrooms would anger the political right and turn into a major cultural war, and it did.
So the right got stronger, got Trump elected.
That in turn angered the left, leading to the cancel culture and statue destroying movements of today. Suddenly it seems that we don’t need any public discussion or process of law to remove an object seen as offensive by some.
With the current societal trends, the woke left would definitely get most of its demands had it attempted to work through legal means.
You can see that happening in the State of Mississippi and the Redskins team. Both are finally changing. Ole Miz is getting rid of that offensive Confederate symbol from its flag!
So why take things into your own hands? It is unbecoming of a democratic society. Martin Luther King’s generation believed in civil disobedience, not chaos. They won their battles using legal means such as Brown v Board.
I hope the woke left does not carry things any further. Trump’s presidency can self destruct on its own, leaving adults and moderates to carry the election and take charge. But if the left continues its lawlessness, it will push fence sitters and moderates into the arms of the law and order right wing.