I'm a bit burned out on the cancellation debate...I agree it's bad, but with both extreme sides indulging in such activity, I have a hard time rooting for anyone (though without any research I presume FIRE might be one of them)....but I love my personal misreading of your line...
"the left allowed itself to be routed into an emotionally self-satisfied **twerking** on cultural and social issues"
“it is the freedom to exercise academic expertise in order to discriminate between good and bad ideas, valid and invalid arguments, sound and hare-brained methods…In each of these cases we are exercising our professional judgment about the intellectual worth and seriousness of other people’s ideas.”
Great job of analyzing Srinivasan's logic--which, btw, in anything she writes--is always confusing and "under-argued" (ie, weak and unconvincing--and for a philosopher that's not a good thing).
You're very right about this "we're always innocent" mentality, and as one who holds values that fall on both sides (if measured that way) I can tell you: an enormous amount of distrust of the left comes from this mentality because as the foundation of its very expression, it presupposes that whoever doesn't agree with them is evil, wrong, or something unsavory because for them to be innocent in an imperfect world, somebody else has to be bad. I, personally, find this mentality disgusting and whatever one can say about conservatives, on the whole they aren't like that once you get past the Fox News narratives. This has surprised many of those who have left the Dem side since 2016, and who are on record as having expressed that surprise.
And on top of that: many liberals are shocked to find their views have implications. (I know, crazy eh?) In their view, "dumb rednecks" should just accept being called dumb rednecks because when liberals express a view, it's for the right reasons. Is it any wonder that conservatives have developed a kneejerk impulse to deride liberals? What else can they do? But because liberals are never wrong, the conservatives must do it because they're evil and a bunch of meanies. While at the same time they must shut their dumb, redneck, racist mouths.
The sad truth is that the liberals will never learn their lesson as a demographic. It seems to be a part of the liberal package. If you don't think they learned any lessons from the Trump era, hell: they still haven't learned lessons from the 30s either, when their counterparts were rabid Stalinists and one of them, Walter Duranty, got a Pulitzer for lying about the Holodomor. (A recent instance I uncovered was on John Dos Passos' Wikipedia page, where they didn't list a book critical of the NY establishment of 1930s NY and Hemingway as a source; in its place was a New Yorker review criticizing the book, falsely calling one tidbit wrong, and only in the most begrudging and "let's move on" manner acknowledging what happened back then, even though the book was by a former Columbia University professor; I will write about it on my Substack soon) That is why I am not a liberal, and happy to not be one. It has, ultimately, nothing to do with whether I agree with them on certain issues or not, any more than it would matter if a cannibal trying to eat me shares my view of the First Amendment. This mentality and the inability to accept that one is wrong is a serious impediment to self-knowledge, which in turn calls into question the seriousness of their devotion to truth.
Good on you for calling out that anti-free-speech lunatic, by the way. However incoherent or stupid they may seem at times, they need to be called out. I hope that sometime in the near future, you are able to either adjust or reconcile your worldview in a manner that doesn't compromise who you are and what you know. I know it's not easy in these times.
I'm a bit burned out on the cancellation debate...I agree it's bad, but with both extreme sides indulging in such activity, I have a hard time rooting for anyone (though without any research I presume FIRE might be one of them)....but I love my personal misreading of your line...
"the left allowed itself to be routed into an emotionally self-satisfied **twerking** on cultural and social issues"
“it is the freedom to exercise academic expertise in order to discriminate between good and bad ideas, valid and invalid arguments, sound and hare-brained methods…In each of these cases we are exercising our professional judgment about the intellectual worth and seriousness of other people’s ideas.”
Goodbye Democracy 😭😭😭😭
Great job of analyzing Srinivasan's logic--which, btw, in anything she writes--is always confusing and "under-argued" (ie, weak and unconvincing--and for a philosopher that's not a good thing).
You're very right about this "we're always innocent" mentality, and as one who holds values that fall on both sides (if measured that way) I can tell you: an enormous amount of distrust of the left comes from this mentality because as the foundation of its very expression, it presupposes that whoever doesn't agree with them is evil, wrong, or something unsavory because for them to be innocent in an imperfect world, somebody else has to be bad. I, personally, find this mentality disgusting and whatever one can say about conservatives, on the whole they aren't like that once you get past the Fox News narratives. This has surprised many of those who have left the Dem side since 2016, and who are on record as having expressed that surprise.
And on top of that: many liberals are shocked to find their views have implications. (I know, crazy eh?) In their view, "dumb rednecks" should just accept being called dumb rednecks because when liberals express a view, it's for the right reasons. Is it any wonder that conservatives have developed a kneejerk impulse to deride liberals? What else can they do? But because liberals are never wrong, the conservatives must do it because they're evil and a bunch of meanies. While at the same time they must shut their dumb, redneck, racist mouths.
The sad truth is that the liberals will never learn their lesson as a demographic. It seems to be a part of the liberal package. If you don't think they learned any lessons from the Trump era, hell: they still haven't learned lessons from the 30s either, when their counterparts were rabid Stalinists and one of them, Walter Duranty, got a Pulitzer for lying about the Holodomor. (A recent instance I uncovered was on John Dos Passos' Wikipedia page, where they didn't list a book critical of the NY establishment of 1930s NY and Hemingway as a source; in its place was a New Yorker review criticizing the book, falsely calling one tidbit wrong, and only in the most begrudging and "let's move on" manner acknowledging what happened back then, even though the book was by a former Columbia University professor; I will write about it on my Substack soon) That is why I am not a liberal, and happy to not be one. It has, ultimately, nothing to do with whether I agree with them on certain issues or not, any more than it would matter if a cannibal trying to eat me shares my view of the First Amendment. This mentality and the inability to accept that one is wrong is a serious impediment to self-knowledge, which in turn calls into question the seriousness of their devotion to truth.
Good on you for calling out that anti-free-speech lunatic, by the way. However incoherent or stupid they may seem at times, they need to be called out. I hope that sometime in the near future, you are able to either adjust or reconcile your worldview in a manner that doesn't compromise who you are and what you know. I know it's not easy in these times.