Thread by @MatthewGreenf11

"the internal war engulfing the ACLU, fueled by a raging conflict between its more traditional lawyers who still believe in the primacy of free speech and the need to defend it and the newer political liberal activists and lawyers who do not."

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1328017991821389824

"Numerous ACLU staffers told me that one of the most vocal and effective advocates for a more “nuanced” free speech approach was Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s Deputy Director for Transgender Justice of its LGBT & HIV Project...

...there was no question that his views on free speech are sharply divergent from those that caused me to regard ACLU lawyers and their free speech absolutism as among my childhood heroes..On Friday, Strangio’s very un-ACLU-like views of free speech were on full display."

"what is being discussed here are not efforts to criticize or protest Shrier and her book.. It is much more extreme than that: an effort to prevent others from hearing her views in her book — i.e., censorship: not state censorship, but corporate censorship."

"the ACLU’s Strangio stepped forward to say that he not only agreed that the book was inaccurate and harmful — which he obviously has every right to believe — but that he supported and championed the efforts to stop its circulation"

"It is nothing short of horrifying, but sadly also completely unsurprising, to see an ACLU lawyer proclaim his devotion to “stopping the circulation of [a] book” because he regards its ideas as wrong and dangerous...

... There are, always have been, and always will be people who want to stop books from being circulated: by banning them, burning them, pressuring publishing houses to rescind publishing contracts or demanding corporations refuse to sell them...

...But why would someone with such censorious attitudes, with a goal of suppressing ideas with which they disagree, choose to go to work for the ACLU of all places?"

" the ACLU — still with some noble and steadfast dissenters — is fast transforming into a standard liberal activist group at the expense of the free speech and due process principles it once existed to defend."

"Glasser is not only adamant to this day about the absolute rightness of that position — emphasizing that both Jewish leftism and African-American civil rights activism had a long tradition of supporting free speech absolutism...

... based on the knowledge that censorship precedents would eventually be turned against them —but he has also harshly criticized the modern-day iteration of the ACLU..adding that the current Executive Director is “pandering to what he thinks his new constituency wants to hear.""

"there have been all sorts of signs from the ACLU — from cheering a French law that criminalizes catcalling to defending the reduction of due process protections for college students accused of sexual assault — that strongly suggest...

... the emergence of liberal political activism at the expense of traditional civil liberties. In sum, the ACLU is being pulled and weighted down by the same censorious trends currently plaguing academia, the corporate world and — most dangerously — news organizations."

"the question of whether young teens are being misdiagnosed with gender dysphoria, and at what age they are capable of making choices to permanently alter their bodies and identities, is of course a question society is exploring and should be able to explore in good faith...

...without being demonized as bigots. Every significant social reform requires persuasion, which in turn requires debate and discussion to induce people to change how they think rather than badger and threaten and coerce them into doing so."

"a dinner I had in 2019 with two respected journalists who both have teenaged daughters, one dating a 17-year-old trans boy and the other whose best friend is a 15-year-old trans boy. Both have had surgery to remove their breasts...

...These are leftist journalists who are fanatically pro-LGBT and trans rights but wondered, as parents of teenagers, at what age a child is emotionally and psychologically capable of making those choices...

... It was a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion but one which, I realized afterward, they would never be willing to express in a column or interview for fear of having their reputations destroyed. That is a toxic and deeply unhealthy climate."

"Most of this censorious mentality stems from the warped proposition that ideas with which one disagrees are not just misguided but “dangerous” and even “fatal.” We so often hear now that views disliked by some people put them “in danger” and “literally kill.”"

"this same pro-censorship mentality is finding expression not only in calls for the state and Silicon Valley giants to suppress speech deemed upsetting and dangerous (censorship that will inevitably fall harshly if not disproportionately on leftists and the marginalized)..

...but also disguising itself under the deceitful banner of Human Resources workplace complaints and union activism..The Intercept Union’s “Diversity Committee” explicitly demanded curbs on free speech whenever..free expression conflicted with political activism they value more"

"that even ACLU lawyers have the instinct, the reflex, to endorse this sort of suppression impulse illustrates how imperiled, across all societal sectors, this indispensable value of free discourse has become."

The above thread is the words of @ggreenwald
greenwald.substack.com
greenwald.substack.com/p/the-ongoing-…