FIRE Announces Ten Worst Censors of 2023
FIRE has released it's list of the ten worst censors of 2023:
The 10 Worst Censors of 2023, in alphabetical order, are:
Book censors
California Community Colleges
Florida state officials
Hypocritical university admins
The Marion County Police Dept.
The Mayo Clinic College of Medical Science
Muirlands Middle School
New York state officials
San Francisco State University
The Texas A&M University system
From FIRE:
It’s past time for off-campus censors to get the dishonor they're due," said FIRE Director of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr. “Censors on and off college campuses have run roughshod over Americans' rights for years, and we hope that by throwing shade at them, we can prompt other would-be censors to think twice.Here's more information about those who made FIRE's list.
Daryl Davis Offers the Perfect Antidote to Cancel Culture
What is Cancel Culture? In their excellent new book, The Canceling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott offer many examples of cancel culture along with this definition (p. 9):
Cancel Culture is just one symptom of a much larger problem: the use of cheap rhetorical tactics to "win" arguments without actually winning arguments. After all, why bother meaningfully refuting one's opponents when canceling them is an easier option? Just take away their platform or career. Nobody else will dare to tread the same ground once you make an example of them.There is good news here, however. Once you understand Cancel Culture as one part of an unhealthy societal conversation, the solution becomes quite clear: We don't have to argue like this.
What's the opposite of cancel culture? Free speech. Lukianoff and Schlott explain:
In the meantime, you should know that Free Speech Culture is a set of cultural norms rooted in older democratic values. Embracing Free Speech Culture means turning back to once popular sayings like "everyone is entitled to their own opinion," "to each their own," «it's a free country," and even "don't judge a book by its cover."
Who is my favorite person who exemplifies the opposite of cancel culture? Daryl Davis. Here's one of his recent Tweets:
Daryl's story is incredible. I've described it in prior posts (and see here and here), but here is a recent succinct description of Daryl's wisdom and heroism by Joe Rogan:
FIRE’s New College Campus Deplatforming Database
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has announced a new Campus Deplatforming Database.
A deplatforming attempt is a form of intolerance motivated by more than just mere disagreement with, or even protest of, some form of expression. It is an attempt to prevent some form of expression from occurring. Deplatforming attempts include efforts to disinvite speakers from campus speeches or commencement ceremonies, to cancel performances of concerts, plays, or the screenings of movies, or to have controversial artwork removed from public display. An attempt to disrupt a speech or performance that is in progress is also considered a deplatforming attempt, whether it succeeds or fails. Deplatforming attempts do not include criticisms of some form of expression and protests denouncing them that are not motivated by the goal of deplatforming the controversial expression.
Things Most Americans Do Not Know about the Ukraine War and Putin
Most Americans I talk to are clueless. They think that it is sufficient justification to pay dozens of billions of dollars because "Putin bad." They are being led around like sheep. There is a history to this Ukraine War and there was a way to completely avoid this war, as admitted by NATO's Secretary General:
But now Tucker Carlson is about to do what all good corporate media journalists should have done over the past few years: Interview Vladimir Putin. This is truly what real journalists do: They are curious and they go out into the world and they bring back important stories, important interviews.
Tucker has made a statement about why he is doing this interview and it is telling. This statement would not have been necessary had other journalists been doing their jobs.
I have transcribed Tucker's statement below:
We're in Moscow tonight. We're here to interview the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. We'll be doing that soon. There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously. So we thought about it carefully over many months. Here's why we're doing it.First, because it's our job. We're in journalism. Our duty is to inform people, two years into war that's reshaping the entire world. Most Americans are not informed. They have no real idea what's happening in this region. Here in Russia, or 600 miles away in Ukraine. What they should know, they're paying for much of it in ways they might not fully yet perceive. The war in Ukraine is a human disaster. It's left hundreds of 1000s of people dead, an entire generation of young Ukrainians. It has depopulated the largest country in Europe.
But the long term effects are even more profound. This war has utterly reshaped the global military and trade alliances, and the sanctions that followed have as well. And in total, they have upended the world economy. The post-WWII economic order, the system that guaranteed prosperity in the West for more than 80 years, is coming apart very fast. And along with it, the dominance of the US dollar. These are not small changes, they are history-altering developments. They will define the lives of our grandchildren.
Most of the world understands this perfectly well. They can see it. Ask anyone in Asia or the Middle East what the future looks like. And yet, the populations of the English speaking countries seem mostly unaware. They think that is nothing has really changed. And they think that because no one has told them the truth. Their media outlets are corrupt. They lie to the readers and viewers. And they do that mostly by omission. For example, since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine and they have done scores of interviews with Ukrainian president Zelensky. We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky. We hope he accepts. But the interviews he's already done in the United States are not traditional interviews. They are fawning pep-sessions specifically designed to amplify Zelensky's demand that the US enter more deeply into war in Eastern Europe and pay for it. That is not journalism. It is government propaganda. Propaganda of the ugliest kind. The kind of kills people.
At the same time our politicians and media outlets have been doing this--promoting a foreign leader like he's a new consumer brand--not a single Western journalist has bothered interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict: Vladimir Putin. Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now. You've never heard his voice. That's wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they're implicated in and we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans too. Freedom of speech is our birthright. We were born with the right to say what we believe.
That right cannot be taken away no matter who is in the White House. But they're trying anyway. Almost three years ago, the Biden administration illegally spied on our text messages and then leaked the contents to their servants in the news media. They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning. Last month we're pretty certainly did exactly the same thing once again. But this time we came to Moscow anyway. We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States. We want it to remain prosperous and free.
We paid for this trip ourselves. We took no money from any government or group. Nor are we charging people to see the interview. It is not behind a paywall. Anyone can watch the entire thing shot live to tape, unedited on our website, tuckercarlson.com. To Elon Musk's his great credit, he has promised not to suppress or block this interview once he posts it on his platform, X. And we're grateful for that. Western governments, by contrast, will certainly do their best to censor this video on other less principal platforms because that's what they do. They are afraid of information they can't control. But you have no reason to be afraid of it. We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview. But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can. And then, like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself. Thanks
Here's one example of many: The Corporate News Outlet reporters are freaking out because they are sitting on their hands like good well-paid servants, yet someone else is actually doing the work of journalism.
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