Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki It's like you invent our side of the conversation anew with every characterization no matter how many times either of us clarifies our actual critique. I give up. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey There is, it seems, no way to raise these concerns about the subject generally or specific cases that Isaac won't consider frustrating and suspect, and I don't really get the baseline logic either. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@DennisMaxwell4 @hencough @jbouie @JayCaruso What I want is to persuade as many people as possible that a wrongheaded view about the speech harm relationship is common on campus, and also to persuade as many people as possible who hold that wrongheaded view to change their minds — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@studentactivism @CoreyAtad @MichaelPreston @jbouie In fact, I encountered this on Twitter, but again, I don't think there is anything objectionable about people who write about higher ed reading student newspapers. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @jbouie I think so too, and I get how others might disagree, but I'm surprised by the *it's suspect to note this publicly* pushback — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@rasmansa @elks_man @jbouie I have not insulted them. I have characterized and disagreed with their views. And where have I ever called such a thing cancel culture? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@AvianDentures @rasmansa @elks_man @jbouie Yep. Even communists. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@CoreyAtad @MichaelPreston @jbouie I'm not sure I do agree, along the dimensions of concern to me here, but I'd have to think about it more. Happy to circle back on that, but must sleep now. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@adamgurri @jbouie @JayCaruso I personally would be much more hesitant to flag a random opinion piece than an unsigned staff editorial, both because I am sensitive to naming individuals when writing about colleges and because the one-offs say much less about prevailing views — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@CoreyAtad @MichaelPreston Yes, I thought the one that @jbouie and Nikole Hannah Jones were criticizing on Twitter was pretty good! https://t.co/KMhsGrNARV — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@adamgurri @jbouie @JayCaruso This was a piece I encountered on Twitter and that was already circulating among MAGA types. I'm not sure why you think me commenting somehow changed this dynamic. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@CoreyAtad @MichaelPreston As noted elsewhere, I would rather they aired their view than suppressed it; but for the airing there'd be no opportunity to disagree. So yes, agreed. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@rasmansa @elks_man @jbouie I have not been hypocritical at all. I thought it was fine for Jamelle to argue with the college student and said so. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@jbouie @DavidAstinWalsh Weren't you literally criticizing an op-ed written by a college student last week? I recall defending your doing so... — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@MarcusWhaley1 @ijbailey @DavidAstinWalsh Very relevant that this is a public, taxpayer funded, state university, not a private organization — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@DennisMaxwell4 @hencough @jbouie @JayCaruso No, I would not object, in any other contexts, to disagreeing with an editorial, and I would not have wanted its writers to self-censor. It is good that we know what their position is, even though I wish they had a different one. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@MichaelPreston They can absolutely editorialize that Mike Pence, or Barack Obama, or Dick Cheney, or Kamala Harris, should never speak on campus. And I can opine that their position is wrongheaded, or noteworthy, or both. That is what is happening here. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@hencough @pashulman @jbouie I read the whole editorial. That *is* the relevant context. My objection was to its arguments, irrespective of whether others made other arguments in the paper. & in the sense you're talking about, every article is a perfect example of free speech. I can still disagree with them! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@CoreyAtad @jbouie I dislike both the speech-harm claims most; as for Pence, it's the students who invited and want to hear him who are my concern, not him being unable to reach an audience. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@adamgurri @jbouie @JayCaruso I flag and engage with ideas I disagree with because I believe doing so is a good civic practice; to hell with marketing strategy. I'm happy to let people read their ideas and mine and reach whatever conclusion they reach. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@hencough @pashulman @jbouie My original Tweet did not advocate for anything. It flagged an editorial that I strongly disagreed with for an audience of people who follow free speech controversies and national politics. And it noted one reason why I disagree with it. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@adamgurri @jbouie @JayCaruso I don't think these editorial writers are producing disingenuous clickbait. I think they expressed their earnestly held ideas, and that we should take those ideas seriously if we think, for example, that it would be really bad for deliberative democracy if those ideas prevailed — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@jbouie @adamgurri @JayCaruso Yes, and also I wrote one tweet about it, because I believe such controversies involving national figures and prestigious public universities to be of wider interest. Which they clearly are. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@hencough @pashulman @jbouie No, I am not advocating for that at all. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@jbouie @JayCaruso For my part, I fear that absent pushback, absurd claims of danger that set horrible free speech precedents will be adopted despite their wrongheadedness by cowed higher ups at sense-making institutions. I have seen it happen before! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@vituperativeerb How is this hard? Yes, of course they are free to publish this editorial. If anyone tried to stop them I would speak up on their behalf to vindicate their right. Also, they wrote something I disagree with, and I am flagging it and being critical, like I do with many things. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@pashulman @jbouie I am not opining on this trend lightly. There is clear evidence for it in survey data, and numerous interviews with faculty and students at numerous institutions also attest to it. You might be unaware of all that; if you're going to levy criticism on this matter, do the reading — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@Gaber205 What do you mean, how is it not just more speech? It is definitely more speech! I disagree with it! And I flagged it. Which was still more speech! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@jbouie So you believe that as long as a newspaper publishes a contrary view, they can editorialize that so and so shouldn't speak at a public university, and they're automatically not censorious, because of that other piece? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey You deploy the term Cancel Culture, which you complain about constantly as being a misleading slur, but only to attack others with it. — PolitiTweet.org