Thread by @JeffreyASachs

THREAD: I'm on record as saying that there are a lot of sincere and principled people working the campus politics/free speech beat, but lately I've grown much more cynical about the entire thing. I'd like to give you an example of why.

Nick Irvin is a senior at UC Davis. On February 25th, he dug up a pair of anti-police tweets from 2014 by English prof Joshua Clover, along with a remark Clover made in a 2015 interview saying that police should be killed.

theaggie.org/2019/02/25/a-u…

While there has been no allegation that Clover brought these words or sentiments into the classroom, Irvin says that he worries Clover may yet do so at some unspecified future date. The students must be protected.

And while these comments are all many years old, Irvin explains that he is publicizing them now because Clover has not shown the proper level of contrition or remorse.

(Note: about 10 days later, Media Matters will publish its hit piece on Tucker Carlson.)

The story gets picked up by the local CBS affiliate the next day. Asked for comment, UC Davis denounces Clover and says that it finds it "unconscionable that anyone would condone much less appear to advocate murder." But critics are unsatisfied.

sacramento.cbslocal.com/2019/02/26/uc-…

At this point, the story goes national, but strictly within the fringe rightwing press. Campus Reform is first out of the gate. RedState, Daily Wire, Breitbart, and Fox soon follow. All denounce the prof; none defend his free speech. They are outraged.

campusreform.org/?ID=11908

(Note: later that week, David French will explain that liberals are only feigning outrage over Tucker Carlson's remarks. In reality, he says, they are thrilled to see an ideological enemy be dragged through the mud.)

On Feb. 28th, GOP state assemblyman James Gallagher launches a petition demanding that Clover be fired. It is eagerly endorsed by talk radio (Irvin gets an especially fawning interview) and in less than a week attracts over 10,000 signatures.

kste.iheart.com/featured/armst…

A state senator joins in as well, along with the California Republican Party, the local chief of police, and the National Fraternal Order of Police. These demands are echoed by law enforcement organizations, gun rights groups, and conservative figures across the country.

(Note: according to a 2017 Cato survey, 41% of Republicans and 42% of conservatives believe that saying police are racist is a form of hate speech. Fully half of all Americans support barring from campus a speaker who criticizes or disrespects the police.)

Anyway, on March 4th, UC Davis issues a statement explaining that while it rejects Clover's words, it cannot fire him without due process. But critics say that by not immediately firing him, it is effectively endorsing his views.

ucdavis.edu/news/statement…
omny.fm/shows/the-arms…

(Note: terms that absolutely no one in the media has used so far to describe this episode include snowflakes, call-out culture, victimhood culture, outrage culture, cancelled, coddled, PC run amok, censorship, self-censorship, fragility, identity politics, or micro-aggressions.)

From there, things move quickly. That same day, UC Davis announces that it has launched an investigation of Clover. Blood is in the water. On March 12th, Gallagher and six other GOP state assemblymen co-sponsor a bill calling for his termination.

legiscan.com/CA/bill/AR22/2…

And on March 15th, a 100+ "Fire Clover" rally is organized on campus by the College Republicans. Gallagher attends and personally hands the signed petition over to university administrators.

davisenterprise.com/local-news/ucd…

A small counter-protest is organized by liberal students urging the College Republicans to respect freedom of speech and academic freedom, but they are ignored.

(Note: four days earlier, a group of liberal students at Sarah Lawrence College called for the firing of conservative prof Sam Abrams. This demand has been widely covered in the mainstream press, where it is understood as revealing something larger about the contemporary Left.)

And that's where things currently stand. Right now I'd put the odds of Clover getting fired at around 30%. The longer this story gets ignored by the media, the higher those odds will probably climb.

Which raises an interesting question, doesn't it?

Because this story has it all: long-ago tweets, ginned up outrage, scandalized students, and demands that a professor be terminated without due process. There's even a state politics angle. So why are you just now being made aware of it?

There are a couple of possibilities.

...Actually, you know what? There's just one. Because let's be honest. If liberal students, leftwing media, and the Democratic Party were all trying to get a conservative prof fired for 5-year old tweets dug up by some campus SJW, you better believe you'd have heard of it by now.

It would be all over Reason. Same with The Atlantic and NRO. The less said about Ben Shapiro, the better. And do I even have to mention the Quillette-Areo-TAC Axis of Perpetual Outrage?

And that's just it. A massive, coordinated assault on campus free speech is unfolding as we speak and none of the Free Speech Brigade have seen fit to utter a word. I don't know what's worse: that they all know and are staying mum, or that they're only now learning about it.

But either way, I'm left with a deep and utterly exhausting sense of cynicism. Because our media is failing us. Oh ye People who profess to care about higher ed, Outrage Culture, and PC run amok, hear my words: your media is failing you. Free speech defenders are failing you.

And they're failing you in a way that oh hey by the way just happens to fall along politically ideological lines. I get that now. It has been an illuminating experience. I won't forget it.

CODA based on responses: It turns out that the same Free Speech folk who don't know the legal definition of defamation also don't know the legal definition of incitement. *pounds table* We must do a better job educating Free Speech Warriors about the First Amendment!