Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "The Right-Wing Radicals Behind Bari Weiss' "Free Speech" University | w/ Alex Kotch" video.

  1. Exactly. It's how she got so far so fast.
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  2. I think everyone has a right to oppose any religious orthodoxy they desire, but especially one which gravely harmed them. It is akin to being molested by clergy and opposing every manifestation of that religion. You have a right to oppose her, she has a right to oppose the Islam that she herself lived under. I don't have to agree with her. I'm sure she IS biased. This is a second-order critique about her right to a voice, not about her wisdom.
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  3.  @dakkerrins6344  Banning lies is never a positive. A lot of lies are unprotected or outright criminal: defamation, instigation to violence based on false accusations, threats triggered by defamation or otherwise, perjury, etc., so obviously no "ban" is necessary, and no arbiter of truth ("Ministry of Truth?") Is necessary. The amount of trouble you can get into just by blurting out a lie to law enforcement because you were frightened or upset is already mind-boggling, when you are not even under oath when you speak to them. Why don't people THINK before they post?
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  4.  @sharonminsuk  You both have a point, though yours has more empirical evidence for sure. Consider also that a certain well-tended wokster vocabulary is what many new media/tech corporations and their HR departments want to hear. Consider the student debt crisis. Of course students do not have the same free speech rights they had when a summer job covered a year of in-state tuition, and a couple of roommates with minimum wage jobs could pay the rent in the Mission District or Brooklyn. People used to have real freedom. And were less scared to speak their minds, for tangible reasons.
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  5. Brilliant!
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  6. Weiss made her name by attacking pro-Palestinian profs as anti-Semitic.
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  7.  @Torthrodhel  Of course it's completely incorrect.
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  8.  @dakkerrins6344  Your comment is extra-ironic. You didn't give truth much thought, obviously.
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  9.  @Bruintjebeer6  We agree.
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  10. If you advocate banning speech, you have to be more specific.
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  11.  @NumeroSystem  That's not specific enough. Read Strossen on hate speech. Read Chemerinsky. I don't agree with every word, but no one who doesn't read them will have a fully informed view of the subject. Your little formulation could end up banning Richard Wolff. It's not like that didn't happen -- during McCarthy.
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  12.  @NumeroSystem  Absolutely: anyone who advocates an overthrow of the capitalist system, by whatever means prove to be necessary. Of course, it is names of assassinated people who come to mind first.
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  13.  @NumeroSystem  If you actually care, read Nadine Strossen and Erwin Chemerinsky. Very fast, entertaining reads. Do that before advocating for gutting the First Amendment.
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  14.  @NumeroSystem  Let me ask you instead: should works by and about Malcolm X be banned? Fred Hampton? Angela Davis? Lenin, Mao, Castro, Che?
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  15.  @NumeroSystem  So, what would you do with it? Denounce it and articulate reasons for that, or remove it from a university campus, and expel any students and fire faculty who smuggle it back in? By what right the latter?
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  16.  @NumeroSystem  That's no longer a university. The unrepentant maoist Alain Badiou was head of the philosophy department at ENS, one of the most prestigious chairs in philosophy in the world. He didn't get along with his boss. His work merited it, so he got the chair. I've known for a long time that free speech means multilingualism. I'm not joking, either. What if works of the past inspire people of the present? (Or has debt and the threat of homelessness taken care of that risk?)
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  17.  @NumeroSystem  Then we're good.
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  18. I heard Niall Ferguson extolling "the West" on Lex Fridmen's show, and Lex, quite astutely, asked him whether he includes the great Russian writers in "Western" civilization. Do I have to tell you Ferguson's answer? (It was "yes.") What a tool. Alternative facts does not begin to describe it. And of course HE tried to smear ideological opponents as a tactic when he was a student and an academic. No one should be surprised, ever.
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  19. There is a free-speech crisis at the university. Start with Norman Finkelstein. Supporters of the Palestinians, even those opposed to BDS, have been systematically thrown out of jobs. Don't let these Koch-sters convince you to take your eye off the ball. When students graduate with the kind of DEBT that they do, you better believe there is a free-speech crisis, and it runs deep. Why do you think "Business" has been the single most common major for at least three decades? Unless it leads to CPA, it's usually worth little except to signal docility to corporate employers.
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  20.  @vannakinder352  Amen.
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  21.  @rickb3650  Where do you work where they can't be shredded?
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  22.  @dereka5037  He said legal, and explained why. The risk of being seen as destruction of evidence of illegal discrimination under federal law is one reason; having a stricter law at the state level is permissible.
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  23. I totally agree. The two comments above mine prove your point, of course.
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  24. Link?
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  25.  @metalhead9061  Evidence?
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  26.  @bearislandthuglife3463  I saw her rapid critique of Gabbard's position on drone use. It was outstanding, and delivered with no hesitation. This is obviously a police-the-populist-left, sheepdog channel. Iversen said herself she was fully vaccinated and never told anyone not to be vaccinated. The way any reasoned discussion surrounding the issue has been vilified and suppressed has created unwarranted vaccine skepticism. Sadly. I'm not sure any more that it's not deliberate.
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  27.  @metalhead9061  I watch her all the time. I don't know what you're referring to. On The Hill Rising, her "lane" is the non-DNC left. I see her and Ryan Grim agree on more than her and Robby. Did you see her criticism of Gabbard? Very thorough, delivered before testing the waters.
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  28.  @metalhead9061  Did you see Glenn Greenwald's recent video with a critic he invited to thrash out these sorts of points? Watch that instead of this. Or better yet, watch a math and logic puzzle channel narrated by someone from Asia. Sharpen your mind. This crap from the Five Eyes can't help you.
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  29.  @metalhead9061  The neoliberal elitist allies of the new oligarchs WILL push ordinary working people to fascism at the rate they're going. Don't you see that?
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  30.  @metalhead9061  I'm not falling for anything. I get my news in three languages. You may be the one falling for the latest frenzy of personal denunciation instead of looking at larger patterns. But looking at larger patterns is vastly more frightening. So tell yourself we just need to "get rid" of a few "bad apples." Good luck with that, you will need it.
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  31.  @metalhead9061  Logic puzzles from India. Listen to me on this. I'm not joking, either. Not one bit. And good literature, preferably Russian. It's a start. You'll remember this exchange one day.
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  32. Have you read Chemerinsky on free speech on campus? There is NO doubt that Chemerinsky is left.
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  33. That went away when the price tag for a semester in-state topped $2500. College tuition was something you could pay for by working 40 hrs per week mid-May through August.
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  34. THANK YOU
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  35. Best comment here. Of COURSE.
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