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mcsvbff bebh's avatar

I don't know anything about the Wesleyan controversy, but the reaction to the NYT op-ed seems to prove the point. If there were no threat to open discourse in our culture, nobody would care about that op-ed at all. Most of us would not even know it was written. Why are journalists *so threatened* by this idea? Why is there so much vitriol? Do these people really not see the contradiction, or is there just so much pressure to say the right thing publicly they won't let themselves consider what's staring them in the face?

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Ami Dar's avatar

Yes. Here's my anodyne reply on Twitter to one Adam Davidson who's spent that last few days railing against that editorial: "This is not complicated. There are any number of *legitimate* policy debates—e.g. how much affirmative action, where, and for whom; or trans people in sports and prisons; or criminal justice reform—that many people are afraid to opine on in certain settings. That fear helps no one." That anyone who actually *lives* in this country could disagree with that is insane. And of course, when those who feel censored take their revenge in the privacy of the voting booth, these same people are shocked, shocked.

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