Good article, one other factor in the turn against free speech is the decline of cultural conservative institutions and social conservatives in elite institutions.
Liberals in the 1950s through the 90s were much more likely to be free speech absolutists because the Church was much more powerful in people's day to day life. Also the upper echelon of elite institutions contained cultural conservatives.
In 2020, the Church is powerful but far far weaker as religious observance has declines. Evangelical christians are much less likely to attend elite universities that serve as the gatekeepers to elite universities.
For a lot of cultural liberals, free speech threats in the private world seem less concerning because the powerful actors seem to share their values. Whether this perception is accurate is a different discussion.
Free speech always seems less important when you think the censors are going to be you and your friends.
"What kind of a neurotic, catastrophizing nerd would possibly think this, and how many academic degrees did they rack up before they came to this conclusion?"
Whenever I hear people talk about how certain words are powerful I think they must have no idea why Monty Python's "The Knights Who Say Ni" is funny. When the knights say "Ni" and everyone is running around cowed by the word they must think that that makes total sense. That's the power that words have.
Louis C.K. didn't engage in "sexual misconduct" by any stretch of the imagination. He didn't assault those women. He didn't rape them. He didn't do anything BAD or evil or even illegal. And this was before he became well known. He jerked off in front of them. You may believe that's gross or offensive or disgusting, but maybe you don't; someone's got to own the eyeballs that in 2019 spent more than five billion hours watching Pornhub. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't hurt anyone, except himself, not to mention his family and friends. How stupid can you get? Not even the missionary position can now be considered "safe sex" for a celebrity with half a brain. Actually, not even a kiss on the cheek, as you and Katie have mentioned, is safe.
The jerks in this story are these stupid girls (I’m tempted to quote Bill Maher (“whiny little pussy”)).Obviously they wanted to witness someone jerking off in front of them. They didn’t? Did C.K. hold a gun to your heads? Tie you down? No? Then what were you doing there? You know what a door is and how to open it? If you do and haven't taken advantage of that escape route, there's only one reason why you stayed. You didn't want to leave.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess alcohol was involved, which has been known to make people do all kinds of crazy and stupid. You’d think that if you find yourself in a situation (what are the chances sth hairy may happen with an adult male + alcohol + hotel room + middle of the night?) you find unpleasant, let alone threatening, you’d remove yourself from it (or don’t get yourself into it, to begin with - “eeeeehhhh, you’re blaming the “victim”!). Or that’s what most women of my generation would have done. We certainly wouldn’t have gone whining in public years later. It’s human to do stupid things and make mistakes. We make mistakes, we apologize, hopefully people forgive us, and life goes on. It’s a part of growing up and becoming a decent human being. But basic decency seems to be lacking in this generation of pampered brats, who believe they’re entitled to a lifetime of feel-good. Any infraction on their fragile feelings must be punished. Which is why they don’t hesitate to ruin a person’s - and his family’s - life, livelihood, and reputation if they think it will feed their aspirations to victimhood. For some inexplicable reasons, there’s currency, not in being self-reliant and able to take care of yourself, but in being a whining sissy who can't find her way out of a room.
I’m a gay man who paid $1400 for a table at an Austin show with Chapelle and Michelle Wolfe. I left after five minutes of Chapelle’s set. I’m kinda violently opposed to cancel culture but damn... After listening to Michelle Wolf bitch about white men and the listen to Chapelle dog on gay people. I said fuck this. There has to be a middle ground between anti-gay comedy and woke-shit. I love both of them but can’t watch this shit anymore. I grew up gay in TX and endured enough heartache - why am I paying good money to be made a villain for a tv special? :(
Very much appreciated this article. College educated media elites seem to live in the same fishbowl, reproducing the insularity of pervious generations' college-educated-elite fishbowls.
Good article, one other factor in the turn against free speech is the decline of cultural conservative institutions and social conservatives in elite institutions.
Liberals in the 1950s through the 90s were much more likely to be free speech absolutists because the Church was much more powerful in people's day to day life. Also the upper echelon of elite institutions contained cultural conservatives.
In 2020, the Church is powerful but far far weaker as religious observance has declines. Evangelical christians are much less likely to attend elite universities that serve as the gatekeepers to elite universities.
For a lot of cultural liberals, free speech threats in the private world seem less concerning because the powerful actors seem to share their values. Whether this perception is accurate is a different discussion.
Free speech always seems less important when you think the censors are going to be you and your friends.
"What kind of a neurotic, catastrophizing nerd would possibly think this, and how many academic degrees did they rack up before they came to this conclusion?"
Whenever I hear people talk about how certain words are powerful I think they must have no idea why Monty Python's "The Knights Who Say Ni" is funny. When the knights say "Ni" and everyone is running around cowed by the word they must think that that makes total sense. That's the power that words have.
The Walter Mosley story - of course it makes no sense. This is all about the rush of power.
Louis C.K. didn't engage in "sexual misconduct" by any stretch of the imagination. He didn't assault those women. He didn't rape them. He didn't do anything BAD or evil or even illegal. And this was before he became well known. He jerked off in front of them. You may believe that's gross or offensive or disgusting, but maybe you don't; someone's got to own the eyeballs that in 2019 spent more than five billion hours watching Pornhub. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't hurt anyone, except himself, not to mention his family and friends. How stupid can you get? Not even the missionary position can now be considered "safe sex" for a celebrity with half a brain. Actually, not even a kiss on the cheek, as you and Katie have mentioned, is safe.
The jerks in this story are these stupid girls (I’m tempted to quote Bill Maher (“whiny little pussy”)).Obviously they wanted to witness someone jerking off in front of them. They didn’t? Did C.K. hold a gun to your heads? Tie you down? No? Then what were you doing there? You know what a door is and how to open it? If you do and haven't taken advantage of that escape route, there's only one reason why you stayed. You didn't want to leave.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess alcohol was involved, which has been known to make people do all kinds of crazy and stupid. You’d think that if you find yourself in a situation (what are the chances sth hairy may happen with an adult male + alcohol + hotel room + middle of the night?) you find unpleasant, let alone threatening, you’d remove yourself from it (or don’t get yourself into it, to begin with - “eeeeehhhh, you’re blaming the “victim”!). Or that’s what most women of my generation would have done. We certainly wouldn’t have gone whining in public years later. It’s human to do stupid things and make mistakes. We make mistakes, we apologize, hopefully people forgive us, and life goes on. It’s a part of growing up and becoming a decent human being. But basic decency seems to be lacking in this generation of pampered brats, who believe they’re entitled to a lifetime of feel-good. Any infraction on their fragile feelings must be punished. Which is why they don’t hesitate to ruin a person’s - and his family’s - life, livelihood, and reputation if they think it will feed their aspirations to victimhood. For some inexplicable reasons, there’s currency, not in being self-reliant and able to take care of yourself, but in being a whining sissy who can't find her way out of a room.
I’m a gay man who paid $1400 for a table at an Austin show with Chapelle and Michelle Wolfe. I left after five minutes of Chapelle’s set. I’m kinda violently opposed to cancel culture but damn... After listening to Michelle Wolf bitch about white men and the listen to Chapelle dog on gay people. I said fuck this. There has to be a middle ground between anti-gay comedy and woke-shit. I love both of them but can’t watch this shit anymore. I grew up gay in TX and endured enough heartache - why am I paying good money to be made a villain for a tv special? :(
Very much appreciated this article. College educated media elites seem to live in the same fishbowl, reproducing the insularity of pervious generations' college-educated-elite fishbowls.