Thread by @JeffreyASachs

New from me at @ArcDigi: There's a war being waged right now on left-wing speech. In state houses across the country, GOP legislators are voting on bills that would muzzle professors, censor students, and destroy academic freedom.

arcdigital.media/the-new-war-on…

Some of these bills were described in this excellent piece by @michelleinbklyn. But there are so many more.

nytimes.com/2021/02/26/opi…

In Georgia, a state rep has ordered universities to report back to him with a list of every course in which faculty discuss concepts like "privilege" or "oppression". Profs say it's already having a chilling effect.

ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/edu…

Arkansas reps want to ban universities from offering any course, class, event, or activity that "promotes division between, resentment of, or social justice for" a race, gender, political affiliation, or social class.

arkansasonline.com/news/2021/jan/…

South Dakota has a bill that would bar schools from using any content “associated with efforts to reframe this country’s history in a way that promotes racial divisiveness and displaces historical understanding with ideology.”

sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/2…

In North Dakota, there are two bills. One would roll back academic free speech. The other would disqualify from a key state grant program any university that partners with an abortion provider.

legis.nd.gov/assembly/67-20…

legis.nd.gov/assembly/67-20…

Worst of all is Iowa, which has bills that would:

1) Ban the 1619 Project in schools and public universities;

thegazette.com/subject/news/g…

2) Force schools to give parents a week's notice before asking their kids their preferred pronoun (they'd also be required to relay the answer to the parents);

who13.com/news/politics/…

3) Identify the political affiliations of all public university faculty in the state;

thegazette.com/subject/news/e…

And 4) Strip them of tenure.

thegazette.com/subject/news/e…

Again, these are just *some* of the bills out there right now. You'd have to be blind not to see what's happening. You'd have to be a hypocrite to be cool with it.

Where is the free speech commentariat in all this? Largely absent from the scene, I'm afraid to say. There are a lot of possible reasons for this, none especially exculpatory. But you'll need to read the piece to see why.

Regardless, this ought to be a gut check moment for the militant anti-woke movement. I don't know what turned you against free speech. Maybe it's the iPhones. Maybe it's social media. Or maybe your generation just never learned the values of classical liberalism. smh.

Regardless, the time for silence is over. Everyone knows something wrong is happening in anti-woke America. Few want to say so out loud. But the hour is very late. It calls for courage.