Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@sethblink I'll stick with acculturating the young to reject rape, murder, and racism — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@jbarro Wordle 255 3/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod You're right on the edge of not being worth my time if you think that tweet was a defense of Rufo. Regardless, please stop wasting both our time by trying to catch me in hypocrisy. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod I don't ignore illiberalism on the right or the left, please don't lie about me after I have demonstrated that again and again in this thread and my archive of articles. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod There are more than two sides. There are consistent champions of liberalism like me, and then there are people like you and your analogs on the right who only object to illiberalism across the aisle, telling themselves the other side is worse as an excuse. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod I have written multiple articles and many tweets about the CRT laws and many pieces more broadly about right illiberalism. Unlike you I don't engage in what-aboutism or pick one side because I think it's a bigger threat. I'm a consistent free speech liberal. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod It's very unpopular, why are you saddling your political side with the impression that whenever it's raised you just respond with what-aboutism? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod It's certainly illiberal and authoritarian and we should oppose it. I'm not sure why you want to engage in what-aboutism here instead of just joining a coalition against all illiberal speech suppression given that you don't seem to actively favor the left kind — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod I didn't say they were more worthy of criticism. Both are worthy of criticism. That's why I criticize both rather than ignoring one side like you apparently do. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod *When Russia is invading Ukraine I think there are more important things than some state law in Florida.* Do you see why that argument isn't persuasive? Neither is yours. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod No I'm saying it's an authoritarian left and authoritarian right thing and that liberals should fight it. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod Every social ill has people who fight it sensibly, like I do, and people who fight it in wrongheaded or excessive ways. That isn't unique to this issue. It is true of all issues. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod *fight — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod The fact that it's not new is true but irrelevant. It's the persistence of a longstanding thing that liberals should find in every era because it is repressive. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod You objected to the descriptor "illiberal". Is it accurate or not? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod Show me the claim I have made where I am panicked or where I have endorsed any infringement on the rights of others and you'll give me cause to reconsider my position. Otherwise, your analysis is wrong. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod And no, persuading others isn't coercion, but pressuring them to suppress art with the implicit threat that you'll try to get them fired if they don't is coercive. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod When the religious right tried to get Time Warner to stop distributing rap that was critical of police officers do you think that was illiberal and worthy of criticism? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod Those aren't exclamations of anger, they are accurate descriptors. Authoritarians, by definition, are people who use coercion to suppress art they don't like and viewpoints different than theirs. Doing so is illiberal. Today's ascendant strain of illiberalism is neopuritanical — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod Your position seems to be that any criticism is okay except criticizing cancel culture — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @jlockett02 @wienerdogprod You keep falsely acting as if I am not defending the right of people to engage in cancel culture or to be puritanical authoritarians. I defend their right to try to deplatform e.g. Dave Chapelle, & I also think the rest of us should criticize their illiberalism and overrule them — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @wienerdogprod There are people, on the left and right, who want to pressure any private institution they can to keep certain kinds of art from reaching the public. I am against those people and understand their psychology to be authoritarian. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @wienerdogprod Of course he isn't "entitled" to money from Netflix. Netflix willingly gave him the money. But my position isn't about what he was paid. It's about whether all gatekeepers should prevent the distribution of his comedy, or not. I think those who say they should are authoritarian. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I agree. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @wienerdogprod If you want my personal opinion, Chapelle wasn't successfully cancelled, but some attempted to cancel him. I respect criticism of Chapelle, but not attempts to get his comedy censored by streaming platforms, though authoritarians are free to advocate for the latter. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@clayranck @wienerdogprod Of course people are allowed to do so. My point was that cancel culture complaints, whether one disagrees with them or not, are made on behalf of people of all races, not just white people. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Well, "normal social changes" in the sense of "like many others in history," but being like McCarthyism, satanic panics, red scares & witch hunts mean you're causing lots of needless harm. Illiberal norm enforcement is very normal... and should be fought in every era. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

But I agree, it's all varieties of authoritarian puritanism stretching back across the centuries — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@wienerdogprod How strange that you imagine only white people are the subject of cancel culture complaints. Have you never heard of Dave Chapelle? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Technology has also changed, permitting quick digital pileons, more efficient termination campaigns easily carried out in part by anonymous actors, and permanent, easily accessible records of old speech and actions. — PolitiTweet.org