PLURIBUS

Share this post

E-Pluribus | June 2, 2021

www.pluri.blog

Discover more from PLURIBUS

Providing original commentary and aggregating the best work on the illiberal impulses that threaten freedom and social cohesion.
Over 1,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Sign in
Today's Best Arguments

E-Pluribus | June 2, 2021

A proposal for Big Tech self-policing, the connection of civil rights laws to "wokeness," and media groupthink.

Jeryl Bier
Jun 2, 2021
Share this post

E-Pluribus | June 2, 2021

www.pluri.blog
Share

A round up of the latest and best writing and musings on the rise of illiberalism in the public discourse:

Susan Crabtree: Group of Tech Execs Takes On Social Media Censorship

Some in the tech industry are taking on their own, pushing back at the reflexive and selective tendency of some of the giants in their field. A new group with the somewhat clunky name of the 1st & 14th Institute is calling for self-policing that will avoid direct government intervention while at the same time holding companies to more predictable and equitable standards of behavior when it comes to free expression.

Over the last year, [Mike Matthys] and two longtime friends of different political persuasions, Brian Jackson and John Quinn -- all of whom work in the tech industry -- have become so alarmed by the steady stream of blatant censorship that they formed a nonpartisan group dedicated to curbing it. They dubbed the group the 1st & 14th Institute after the Bill of Rights’ guarantees of free speech and due process.

[…]

“We’re nonpartisan and we like to remind people that if you really dislike Trump or you dislike conservative views, just remember what happened in the 1950s and 1960s when we had the McCarthy era and the Berkeley free speech movement.”

[…]

Instead of trying to rip away Section 230 protections, the trio proposes an industry-wide self-regulatory process that falls mostly outside of government -- similar to how the film industry voluntarily created the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings system in 1968 in response to parents’ calls for common-sense guidelines assessing movies for children’s viewing.

Matthys envisions a quasi-governmental body akin to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that operates as an extension of the Securities and Exchange Commission and regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA has an $800 million budget, is funded by industry participants, hands out fines and has the ability to disbar individuals from serving as investment advisers if they aren’t operating within prescribed standards.

Read it all at RealClear Politics.

Richard Hanania: Woke Institutions is Just Civil Rights Law

In his Substack newsletter, Richard Hanania documents how many components of present day “wokeness” are rooted in the effects of civil rights legislation, often as interpreted and implemented by government bureaucracy. Confronting this mission creep would inevitably lead to charges of trying to roll back hard won civil rights victories, but in Hanania’s telling, it may allow some real progress to be made as opposed to the sound and fury that characterizes much of the current “wokeness” opposition.

Before proceeding, it is important to clarify what wokeness actually is. I’d argue it has 3 components:

1) A belief that any disparities in outcomes favoring whites over non-whites or men over women are caused by discrimination (Sometimes wokeness cares about other disparities too, like fat/nonfat, but those are given less attention. I’m putting aside LGBT issues, which seem to be at an earlier stage of wokeness in which the left is still mostly fighting battles regarding explicit differences in treatment rather than disparate outcomes, although the latter does get attention sometimes.)

2) The speech of those who would argue against 1 needs to be restricted in the interest of overcoming such disparities, and the safety and emotional well-being of the victimized group in question.

3) Bureaucracies are needed that reflect the beliefs in 1 and 2, working to overcome disparities and managing speech and social relations.
Each of these things can be traced to law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on race and gender. While most at the time thought this would simply remove explicit discrimination, and many of the proponents of the bill made that promise, courts and regulators expanded the concept of “non-discrimination” to mean almost anything that advantages one group over another. An important watershed was the decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), in which the Supreme Court ruled that intelligence tests, because they were not shown to be directly related to job performance, could not be used in hiring since blacks scored lower on them, and it did not matter whether there was any intent to discriminate. People act as if “standardized tests are racist if they show disparities” is some kind of new idea, but it’s basically been the law in the United States for 50 years, albeit inconsistently enforced.

Read the whole thing.

Bret Stephens: Media Groupthink and the Lab-Leak Theory

Facebook’s recently reversed its ban on discussions of the Wuhan COVID lab leak theory and some mainstream publications are backing away from previous characterizations of the theory as “fringe” or “conspiracy.” Bret Stephens writes how journalism writ large needs a reckoning on how some issues such as the lab leak theory are politicized beyond all reason to the detriment of everyone.

But this possible [lab leak] scandal, which is as yet unproved, obscures an actual scandal, which remains to be digested.

I mean the long refusal by too many media gatekeepers (social as well as mainstream) to take the lab-leak theory seriously. The reasons for this — rank partisanship and credulous reporting — and the methods by which it was enforced — censorship and vilification — are reminders that sometimes the most destructive enemies of science can be those who claim to speak in its name.

[…]

The common reaction in elite liberal circles? A Washington Post reporter called it a “fringe theory” that “has been repeatedly disputed by experts.” The Atlantic Council accused Cotton of abetting an “infodemic” by “pushing debunked claim that the novel coronavirus may have been created in a Wuhan lab.” A writer for Vox said it was a “dangerous conspiracy theory” being advanced by conservatives “known to regularly spew nonsense (and bash China).”

There are many more such examples. But the overall shape of the media narrative was clear. On one side were experts at places like the World Health Organization: knowledgeable, incorruptible, authoritative, noble. On the other were a bunch of right-wing yahoos pushing a risible fantasy with xenophobic overtones in order to deflect attention from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the crisis.

Read it all at The New York Times.

Around Twitter

A thread on the (apparently) mysterious rise of violent anti-Semitism during the recent Israel-Hamas conflict:

Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
If only the perpetrators of this violence were carrying signs and flags and screaming at their victims about why they were attacking them, Vox might be able to crack this impenetrable code, figure out this riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma!
Twitter avatar for @voxdotcom
Vox @voxdotcom
Violent anti-Semitism spiked in America during the Israel-Hamas war. And we don’t know why. https://t.co/6QNoqXj1Z7
3:30 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
1,068Likes219Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
For the past few years, those of us who dared point out that anti-Semitism was being normalized on the Left were subjected to ridiculous amounts of abuse. Now that it's actually broken out into violence, they're breaking out calculators to minimize and dismiss it.
3:37 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
180Likes41Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
What we're seeing is the mainstream media blatantly normalizing anti-Semitism, following SEO and Twitter trending topics and Google search and politician celebs down a path of hate that's turning America into Europe when it comes to Jews.
3:43 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
111Likes22Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
And there's been just so little pushback from the Left, from the Democrats, from your favorite thinkers and pundits who are so smart about everything else and just so blind on this topic. Just a really horrifying, clarifying moment.
3:44 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
111Likes14Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
For years, the Left demanded silence about rising anti-Semitism in its midst, mercilessly bullying anyone who refused to comply. Now this penchant—along with anti-racism and other staples of academia—has seeped into the mainstream through the media and politician celebs.
4:19 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
40Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
I know it's tough, but you absolutely have to say no to this. It's not about Left or Right. It's about whether you want to live in a society where it's chic to have a distaste for Jews, for their history and their values, for what they represent and what they care about.
4:21 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
55Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bungarsargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
That's Europe and it's where America is headed if you don't stand up and say no.
4:22 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021

A thread from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education on one university’s war on Greek (letters):

Twitter avatar for @TheFIREorg
FIRE @TheFIREorg
Bloomsburg University wrongly served as judge, jury, & executioner for 17 student groups whose only crime is having Greek letters in their name. Not so fast. The unilateral disbanding of the groups violates @BloomsburgU's own policies & the law.
go.thefire.orgGREEK RUINS: FIRE calls on Bloomsburg to restore 17 Greek chapters disbanded without due processAfter Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania disbanded its entire Greek life system without due process, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education says: not so fast.
7:22 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2021
18Likes5Retweets
Twitter avatar for @TheFIREorg
FIRE @TheFIREorg
@BloomsburgU “Its decision to unilaterally punish innocent students for conduct they did not commit amounts to guilt by association — an egregious practice that has no place at any institution of higher education,” said FIRE's @Zach2Greenberg.
7:23 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2021
6Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @TheFIREorg
FIRE @TheFIREorg
@BloomsburgU @Zach2Greenberg Guilt by association is banned by the First Amendment and has been decried by the U.S. Supreme Court as “a philosophy alien to the traditions of a free society and the First Amendment itself.”
7:24 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2021
7Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @TheFIREorg
FIRE @TheFIREorg
@BloomsburgU @Zach2Greenberg “We hope that the university will respect the constitutional and due process rights of all its students, including those who belong to Greek organizations," said the (now former) Bloomsburg sorority Phi Iota Chi.
7:26 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2021
3Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @TheFIREorg
FIRE @TheFIREorg
@BloomsburgU @Zach2Greenberg Bloomsburg policy states that student groups must receive written notice of any alleged violations and are also entitled to a hearing before being sanctioned. Neither of these rights were afforded to Phi Iota Chi before the group was disbanded.
7:27 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2021
Twitter avatar for @TheFIREorg
FIRE @TheFIREorg
@BloomsburgU @Zach2Greenberg We call on the university to reinstate Greek life and restore its students’ rights immediately.
thefire.orgGREEK RUINS: FIRE calls on Bloomsburg to restore 17 Greek chapters disbanded without due processAfter Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania disbanded its entire Greek life system without due process, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education says: not so fast.
7:27 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2021

Damon Linker on the continuing polarization (and tedium) of political debate:

Twitter avatar for @DamonLinker
Damon Linker @DamonLinker
American political "debate" now consists almost entirely of one side saying, "If we don't rout our opponents, American democracy is doomed," while the other side responds, "If we don't rout our opponents, American democracy is doomed."
1:36 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
668Likes91Retweets

Some responses to Linker’s statement (and some of his responses to the responses):

Twitter avatar for @AdamSerwer
Adam Serwer 🍝 @AdamSerwer
@DamonLinker Zero difference between good (letting people choose their leaders) and bad things (trying to keep specific segments of the population from being able to do that) etc etc
3:19 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
687Likes9Retweets
Twitter avatar for @stevenmklein
Steven Klein @stevenmklein
@DamonLinker Don't you think this equivalency is somewhat undermined by the fact that the sitting president of one party openly tried to overturn an election he lost and by the fact that his supporters in his party are working hard to produce mechanisms that could make that feasible?
1:39 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
144Likes4Retweets
Twitter avatar for @DamonLinker
Damon Linker @DamonLinker
@stevenmklein I don't think both sides are equal. I'm largely on the Dem side on the substance. But I also think my friend @BloggerGideon has been making a valid point that if one side changes the rules of the game alone, it will be judged illegitimate by roughly half the country.
1:45 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
49Likes5Retweets
Twitter avatar for @MaxKennerly
Max Kennerly @MaxKennerly
@DamonLinker Oh man sounds bad, we should immediately pass legislation to stop antidemocratic attacks by ensuring the broadest number of people, regardless of partisanship, can vote. Say, by chance, does "one side" support exactly that while the other opposes it?
3:08 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021
377Likes11Retweets
Twitter avatar for @DamonLinker
Damon Linker @DamonLinker
@MaxKennerly That sounds good. How are you going to pass that legislation when 48% of the country opposes it?
3:15 PM ∙ Jun 2, 2021

Follow @PluribusPub


Want to receive our E-Pluribus round-ups straight to your inbox? Subscribe now at the link below:

Share this post:

Share

Share this post

E-Pluribus | June 2, 2021

www.pluri.blog
Share
Previous
Next
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 PLURIBUS
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing