Many of those who were loudest in denouncing cancel culture then are now curiously silent in the face of Donald Trump’s assaults on free speech.
No shit. Cancel culture is another bullshit buzzword for MAGAt morons to parrot when they get in trouble for hateful speech and actions. They’re getting what they want now so we won’t hear a peep.
signed by 153 public intellectuals
Okay, so… what does it really take to be a public intellectual? Is that a job? A college course? Is there some kind of paycheck? What exactly are the requirements for this, and did all 153 people meet that requirement? Was there a process? Some sort of vetting?
Receive a shitload of oligarch cash to start an “independent” news firm. That’s public intellectualism in America.
Alas, I don’t have that kind of cash. I guess I will be forever dumb.
Their Twitter bio says they are smart.
Every person who legit supports freedom of speech made fun of the Harper’s letter and it ruined Harper’s reputation (to the degree it had one in the 2020’s) for a generation. I would guess fewer than 10% of the signatories signed it in good faith or knew they were signing something that people like Bari Weiss’s clownfraud ass were even asked to sign. She’s not a public intellectual. She’s a public buffoon.
They have transcended hypocrisy. If they won’t be punished by their voter base for it, why should they care.
Blaming the perceived “center” for the onward journey of the right further and further to the right is, frankly, pretty lazy writing.
No-one was changing their politics because a bunch of upper middle class armchair complainers voiced some banal opinions on identity politics, revealing that they were, in fact, fairly right wing all along. Lo and behold one of the key signatories now supports a literal genocide. So intellectual, many thoughtful.
