Free Speech
A collection of 231 posts
The Campaign of Lies Against Journalist Jesse Singal—And Why It Matters
One of the odd-seeming aspects of progressive cancel culture is that many of the figures targeted by mobs aren’t especially conservative in their views.
Britain's Academic Free Speech Bill
Interference by external actors comprises any attempt by those outside the academy to encroach upon the free speech rights of university members.
The Threat to Academic Freedom: From Anecdotes to Data
The moral community is now self-reproducing. It is also self-radicalising.
The Problem With Linking Censorship to Incitement
In any case, I do not share the view that to restrict speech necessarily diminishes the spread of ideas.
How a Single Anonymous Twitter Account Caused an ‘Indigenized’ Canadian University to Unravel
The main beneficiaries are more likely to be privileged administrators who burnish their bona fides by filling alumni magazines and email blasts with Indigenous photo-ops.
A Cardinal Sin
My efforts and motives in instigating Cardinal Conversations, in response to undergraduates’ requests, and in defending the program against the assault upon it were simply ignored.
‘More Weight’: An Academic’s Guide to Surviving Campus Witch Hunts
When you are being targeted by aggression, hostility, and hatred, a natural impulse is to want to fight back as hard as possible, and exact revenge.
Beating Back Cancel Culture: A Case Study from the Field of Artificial Intelligence
It’s easy to decry cancel culture, but hard to turn it back. Thankfully, recent developments in my area of academic specialty—artificial intelligence (AI)—show that fighting cancel culture isn’t impossible.
Big Tech and Regulation—A Response to the Quillette Editors
The fallout has been intense and has gripped the professional commentariat.
Philosophers Smear One of Their Own for Gender Heresy
Why do philosophers so often uncritically support the conventional views of the time and place in which they find themselves?
To Expower the People
Expowering is a transitional measure since you cannot fire your way to equity.
The Death of Political Cartooning—And Why It Matters
Many nominally democratic political regimes practice de facto censorship in regard to material criticizing their populist rulers.
An 'Anti-Racist' Mob Set Its Sights on Humble ‘Squampton.’ Here’s How the Town Fought Back
Though the population is largely white, Squamish has steadily become more diverse in recent years, and now boasts a thriving Sikh community.
On Activist Scholarship: An Interview with Helen Pluckrose
The universities are also where rigorous research, science, and valuable knowledge production continues to happen, and it is the universities we will need to push back at this and self-correct.