Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
QoTD: Liberals Need to Defend Free Speech—says a Liberal. Should We Care?
The problem is that people will inevitably differ about which speech qualifies as racist. The term has become our own scarlet letter, an all-purpose way to prohibit ideas you dislike. So we need to defend the free-speech rights of everyone,
even avowed racists. The best response to hateful speech is to raise your own voice against it, not ban it.
–Jonathan Zimmerman, in the WSJ
Clearly Jonathan Zimmerman, as a liberal, does not fall into the rank-and-file of academia in terms of his views about free speech. But he is a clear-thinking man who sees the detriments to labeling everything racist except the kitchen sink. Although I don’t think he has many followers, he at least advocates for the honest approach to free speech: instead of calling everything racist that you dislike, defend your position and do it honorably.
At a time when our commitments to courage, truth, and honor have fallen by the wayside or been misrepresented as Rightist rantings, it’s even a little encouraging to see a man who speaks genuinely for free speech. At some level, he may realize that his fellow liberals may also be victim to the next attack on free speech if the rules shift.
It might be tempting to brush off these few comments we’ve been seeing from the Left as useless, but I believe we do so to our own detriment in a number of ways. We need to thank them for speaking up and let others know they are doing so. We need to thank them for supporting a tenet of this great country. We benefit from not seeing this act like a pebble thrown into the ocean of hate, but a sword offered up in the heat of battle. Every statement can be a chink in the Left’s armor; every call-out gouges a weakness in their wall. Every. Single. One. Counts.
The original piece in the WSJ.
Published in Group Writing
Yes, but I don’t like my liberties being collateral damage in that struggle.
That certainly is the effect, if not necessarily the intent. I say if there is a tear in the outside layer of the onion, pull on it.
The issue is, of course, much larger than free speech, as you say, @gumbymark. After reading the article you linked, I came away both frightened and enraged. If the other universities are as far gone as Georgetown, this country is in even deeper trouble than I could imagine. We may have to write off the Woke universities completely.
On the other hand, I want to respond to those who think we should blow off those who are coming to their senses; in fact, maybe they should be punished for their sins. I disagree. Who are we to judge if a person has really seen the light? If a person genuinely has seen the devastation he or she has wrought, we should make room for them. I’m not saying we should celebrate them and be over-exuberant–in fact we need to be cautious, but engaging. If we are ever going to fight this plague, we will need all the help we can get. If we punish them, we are behaving just as they do.
I agree. Here is a longer piece I recently wrote on my personal blog about this issue and highlighting a few of those on the left I now follow. One of them wrote, referring to liberals who failed over the years to resist this trend:
We can also ask, what did we do? I think most of us were unaware, but does our ignorance excuse us? Thanks for the link to your blog.
We are no longer ignorant, so not any more. There are a number of groups springing up – some to help individuals caught in this mess, others aiming at litigation (some of which is ongoing). I’m doing some of my own due diligence to see which may be worth financially supporting. If it is not happening already, approach your state legislators to advocate for legislation banning the teaching of CRT in public schools (several states are already in the process of doing so), and get engaged with your local school, public if you have children there or are a taxpayer, or private if you have children there, to understand if CRT is being taught and, if so, be willing to publicly advocate for change, understanding that you will be called a racist if you do so.
I believe Gov. DeSantis has banned CRT, but more needs to be done. Thanks so much for your suggestions!