I was part of many left wings groups and I remember there was a transitional period in which there was a lot of talk about intersectionalism, that is how we need to not only take into account the class, but also race, gender, sexual orientation etc. Then slowly the class part dissappeared so only the latter were left to intersect.
Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
431–440 of 441 posts
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#432Flagged. Well that is very unfortunate. Looks like HN isn't immune from the incredibly insightful points that Tara is making.
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
She got cancelled for an essay that essentially says, “Trans women are fine, and I support them, but they are not the same as people who are born women”, which is a position that went from relatively uncontroversial to transphobic within the last five or so years.
What point was she trying to make by highlighting any distinction?
Intention of the writer is not the point. The fact that she is saying something that would be accepted as "policy" in the overton window previously but is now grounds for a coordinated shunning is a good example of how the window shifts over time.
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
How exactly do you quantify this harm? Most of these re-definitions of "harmful" speech always seem unclear and difficult to define. Under the current legal framework (which you said you disagreed with) we already have standards and methods of quantifying that harm when speech directly incites violence. These same measures also explicitly define anything else as not harmful. The way I see it, the government has more…
Where I live this what we got: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_Canada Also see the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_the_United... "Expressions of hatred toward someone on account of that person's colour, race, disability, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion, gender reassignment, or sexual orientation is forbidden.[1][2][3][4] Any communicatio…
Here is a recent example, from Canada - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lawyer-for-canadian-pastor...
Or, more directly - the Mike Ward case, where a comedian was fined for telling a joke [0].
There are other examples from the Commonwealth countries. I am grateful that our current laws prevent things like ASBOs from the UK [1] from existing here.
Further, by my reading, that "hate speech" law sounds very expansive. Just because the Canadian government isn't abusing that law the same way other countries are, doesn't mean it wouldn't be permitted under the letter of the law.
The failure in "free speech" in the US isn't actually a failure in the law, but a failure in the marketplace, where unregulated tech / social monopolies have formed and there is no proper distributed platform that people use to interact.
Otherwise, I actually think the free speech laws in the US would work - you don't counter misinformation with censorship, but with better information. This applies to "hateful" speech as well.
[0] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/comedian-mike-ward-seeks-...
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-social_behaviour_order
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kind of … more and more journalism outfits are going towards non-profit status. That usually involves some sort of ideological position: National Review is neoconservative, Jacobite is far left, n+1 is progressive. That’s not really what we usually mean by news, but that’s the mode being adopted by many news outlets.
> That’s not really what we usually mean by news, but that’s the mode being adopted by many news outlets. National Review was founded in 1955, and is the only one of the examples you cite that even pretends to have a journalistic component (though its overtly mainly commentary); Jacobin is overtly commentary, not news; n+1 is a literary, rather than journalistic, outlet. That's not really good examples of a novel tre…
I didn’t give any examples of for-profits that converted to non-profits. My examples are expository, not argumentative.
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#436Except at political groups to which I belong, I am almost always the left-most person in the room. The Lefts greatest weakness is an enthusiasm for splintering over small matters of doctrine. Identity politics, tribalism over principle, virtue signaling, whatever fad this is, it's deeply hurting progress.
People act as if this is a new thing. We’ve been doing this for decades. Hence the People’s Front of Judea gag in Life of Brian.
I think that was more the far lefts propensity to engage in ideological warfare because they were so far from actual power.
They had nothing better to do than draw up lists of heretics and excommunicate them.
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
Max dem donor, historically very "left" as well. This is an issue on both sides in the extreme. On the right just look at what to outsiders are TINY doctrinal differences in things like faith issues - have historically driven major internal divisions. I always thought the American left would really endure / have the advantage long term because of what seemed like a healthier exchange of ideas (free speech support etc…
> I'm hoping the next generation has a good take on this. I believe the current generation has a good take on this: when your identity becomes enmeshed in a political religion, the creation of differences is mandatory to support your vision. This necessity of finding a cause or something to believe in—the need for baddies and an existential battle of good vs evil—will exist in perpetuity on the left. If there are no…
"the need for baddies and an existential battle of good vs evil"
I would argue this motivates a fair bit of the hard right too. Think of the folks fighting the "murder" of children, they come up with baddies (abortion doctors), take the law into their own hands (bombings etc). Same thing with the "stolen election". I'm not speaking about the merits of either of these issues, just that they serve to drive a similar situation on right.
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm hoping the next generation has a good take on this. I believe the current generation has a good take on this: when your identity becomes enmeshed in a political religion, the creation of differences is mandatory to support your vision. This necessity of finding a cause or something to believe in—the need for baddies and an existential battle of good vs evil—will exist in perpetuity on the left. If there are no…
"the need for baddies and an existential battle of good vs evil" I would argue this motivates a fair bit of the hard right too. Think of the folks fighting the "murder" of children, they come up with baddies (abortion doctors), take the law into their own hands (bombings etc). Same thing with the "stolen election". I'm not speaking about the merits of either of these issues, just that they serve to drive a similar si…
> Think of the folks fighting the "murder" of children, they come up with baddies (abortion doctors)
This has been Christian doctrine for 2000 years: they didn't "come up with it." It's in the Didache, which is a first century document and puts abortion in the same category as pedophilia.
In contrast, there will never be a point where the left stops finding new niche epithets and specialized victims/oppressors because the Hegelian worldview requires it.
A mere 10 years ago, the idea of TERFs or people oppressing others because they didn't include pronouns would be unthinkable. Once that bridge is crossed, more bridges will inevitably need to be created. We live in a world where the left thinks thousands of unarmed black men are killed every year, when the number in 2019 was... 14 [1]
This same worldview thinks that there's a mass of white supremacists seeking to take over the country, and yet, where is the mass number of crimes that we hear about? If they were there, don't you think we'd hear about specific cases on the news, given that literally half of all unarmed black men killed by police made national news?
[1] https://www.manhattan-institute.org/police-black-killings-ho...
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well sometimes it can be tough to know. Is that a trans man showing a bit an effeminate side sometimes or a woman? Is that person trying to look androgynous or masculine or is it just what they like to wear?
Well, if it really bothers someone when someone else uses the wrong pronoun, they could always just politely ask. Just like people with hard-to-pronounce foreign names. And if someone else refuses, you know, just don't be friends with that guy - be professional, to-the-point and spend your free time with the people that share your values. If you actually have a great home, friends, hobbies, and are generally happy ab…
> After all, you don't care if your colleague likes heavy metal while you love rock
Blasphemy! Madness!
Heavy metal all the way, duh!
Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
#440The primary arts centre in one of Canada’s largest cities spent most of last summer running a series of events where transgender artists presented children’s songs and stories. I can’t help but think that for the vast majority of casual viewers (pedestrians and casual passers by) it was confusing at best and “another example of how we waste money on the arts” at worst. I love and respect the arts. It’s goals are wort…
Couldn't this be said for almost all art?