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150 Top Intellectuals Sign Open Letter Decrying Cancel Culture

Numerous public figures including Noam Chomsky and Salman Rushdie oppose totalitarian march of ” ideological conformity”.

Published

3 months ago

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150 of the world’s top intellectuals, authors and activists have signed an open letter decrying leftist cancel culture, censorship and the totalitarian march of “ideological conformity.”

Signatories include liberal icon Noam Chomsky and ‘Satanic Verses’ author Salman Rushdie.

The letter, which was published by Harpers Magazine, is also signed by J.K. Rowling, Fareed Zakaria, Garry Kasparov, and, perhaps surprisingly, feminist activist Gloria Steinem.

“The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides,” states the letter, highlighting how “the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted” as a result of “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”

“Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes,” states the letter.

This is creating a climate of risk aversion that is preventing anyone from dissenting from the monolithic consensus of social justice rhetoric, creating a “stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time,” according to the letter.

The letter highlights the fact that there are still some genuine “liberals” left in society who are willing to stand behind the increasingly endangered species of free speech.

However, some would ask where they’ve been hiding for the past three years since mass censorship, particularly by monopolistic social media giants, has been significantly ramped up.

The idea that an open letter will do much to stop the rampaging virus of cancel culture is also up for debate. Why don’t these intellectuals organize a major conference or a massive protest march to showcase their principles?

The irony of course is that if this letter gains any traction at all, its signatories will immediately become targets for cancellation from the unhinged, woke far-left.

The full letter is reprinted below.

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Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts. But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity. As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices against the second. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy. But resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion—which right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.

The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident, the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers, artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus, or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement.

This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us.

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Jack Dorsey Admits Censorship of New York Post Story Was “Wrong”

But Twitter refuses to unblock other censored URLs.

Published

3 days ago

on

16 October, 2020

Matt Crossick - PA Images/Getty Images

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has admitted that the social media giant’s censorship of a New York Post story alleging Joe Biden’s involvement in a foreign lobbying scandal was “wrong”.

The controversy began on Wednesday when the Post, citing leaked emails, claimed Hunter Biden had introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive in a Ukrainian energy firm a year before Biden pressured the government of Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was investigating the company.

Twitter quickly followed up by determining the information to be a violation of its “hacked materials” policy and blocked users from both tweeting a link to the article and sending it to each other via direct message.

Numerous prominent Twitter users were also locked out of their accounts for attempting to post the story and Twitter even blocked a link to the Republican Republican Judiciary website at house.gov that carried a copy of the New York Post article.

After a firestorm of complaints and the prospect of being dragged before another Republican committee, Dorsey acknowledged that Twitter had made a mistake.

“Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that,” tweeted Dorsey.

Dorsey’s climb down is remarkable, but his admission that blocking URLs is “wrong” apparently doesn’t extend to other websites that are blocked by the platform.

As numerous respondents to Dorsey pointed out, both video hosting websites BitChute and Banned.video are still blocked by Twitter.

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Twitter Blocks Link to Republican Judiciary Website in Another Attempt to Censor Biden Scandal

“Twitter is now blocking a government website.”

Published

4 days ago

on

15 October, 2020

Republican House Judiciary

After blocking links to the New York Post story about Joe Biden’s foreign lobbying scandal, Twitter has now followed up by blocking a link to the official Republican Judiciary website at house.gov.

Both Facebook and Twitter prompted a censorship firestorm yesterday after they attempted to censor a New York Post article that claimed Hunter Biden had introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive in a Ukrainian energy firm a year before Biden pressured the government of Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was investigating the company.

Twitter also locked many prominent users out of their accounts for tweeting links to or screenshots from the article, including media organizations, reporters, celebrities and government organizations.

The social media giant claimed it was enforcing a policy that forbids “hacked materials” from being posted on its site, despite the fact that Hunter Biden’s laptop was legally in the possession of the computer repair shop that had it since Biden didn’t pay for the repair.

Twitter also said that it forbids the sharing of “personal and private information — like email addresses and phone numbers,” although just like the “hacked materials” policy this is only ever selectively enforced.

Now the company has taken its censorship blitzkrieg one step further by actually blocking a link to the Republican Judiciary website.

The official House Judiciary Twitter account tweeted a link to the webpage with the text, Twitter has blocked users from tweeting the link to the @nypost’s story on Hunter Biden. So we put it on our website for you to read and share. Click, share, and RT!”

However, when users attempt to click on the link, they are met with a message that reads, “Warning: this link may be unsafe,” before a description that says the article contains “violent or misleading content that could lead to real-world harm.”

“Twitter is now blocking a government website,” commented journalist Tim Pool.

We’ve officially crossed the rubicon.

Social media giants, acting as front groups for the Democratic Party, are now behaving as if they have more power than the government of the United States.

And to a great extent – partly due to the failure of Republicans to regulate Big Tech monopolies – they do.

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Twitter LOCKS Accounts Of Media, Celebrities, Gov. Officials For Sharing Biden Scandal Story

Even CEO Jack Dorsey says the response is “unacceptable”

Published

4 days ago

on

15 October, 2020

Steve Watson

Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Twitter has locked the accounts of anyone who shared the New York Post story regarding Joe Biden’s foreign lobbying scandal, including media organisations, reporters, celebrities, and even government officials.

The story, which has been met with denials from the Biden campaign, claims that Hunter Biden had introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive in a Ukrainian energy firm a year before Biden pressured the government of Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was investigating the company.

After following Facebook’s crackdown, Twitter prevented anyone from sharing the “potentially harmful” story:

Twitter even prevented editors at the NY Post from tweeting out the story:

Now the company has gone one step further by LOCKING the accounts of anyone attempting to spread the information.

The NY Post’s primary account was locked:

A reporter with The Daily Caller attempted to share the story, and found his account was also locked:

Several other conservative reporters found their accounts locked:

Actor James Woods had the same experience:

Even White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s account was locked by Twitter:

Twitter’s actions have been labelled as election meddling and an ‘act of digital civil war’, as the company is not only locking accounts and preventing the spread of the information on its own platform, but discouraging anyone from reading the story in general:

Even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey attempted to distance himself, describing his company’s response to the story as “not great” and “unacceptable”:

Was he really referring to the censorship though, or that fact that the reason for the censorship wasn’t well “communicated”?:

Perhaps Dorsey would like to explain this under oath?

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