Antiracist progressives today often encounter the conservative backlash that twists the democratic doctrine of free speech into an absolutist or ‘purist’ form – weaponizing it as a warped defence of white supremacy in a way that seeks to make #racism legally acceptable.
Today the New/Alt-Right is asserting a putative political need for an ostensibly democratic society to maintain an absolute tolerance of abusive & even assaultive speech – as protected forms of dissent.
The free speech fallacy: opposition to hate speech imperils free speech.
Herbert Marcuse believed that this doctrine of absolute tolerance of 'free speech' was being systematically utilised to abuse guarantees against bigotry & discrimination, & to derail or destroy the possibility of democratic egalitarianism.
Many protect neofascist speech, but classical liberalism intended speech protections primarily for powerless minority voices expressing dissent against the ideology of dominant interests, not to protect establishment voices that are already hegemonic as well as often distasteful.
‘This pure tolerance of sense & nonsense’ practiced under the conditions prevailing in the United States today ‘…cannot fulfil the civilizing function attributed to it by the liberal protagonists of democracy, namely protection of dissent.’ (Herbert Marcuse, 1965).
The assertion, often heard nowadays, that racist and sexist views contribute necessary components of cultural diversity and belong within an inclusive pluralism is an utterly perverse example of vicious cultural and political double-speak.
After 6 January 2021, Tech-platforms banned Donald Trump in an effective action against a #neofascist threat of force & violence against liberal political leaders & ordinary citizens. Freedom of speech in not absolute & must be viewed in the context of its political consequences.
Crimes by the Right are tolerated by the US state eg racist police brutality, rejecting comprehensive health care, treating asylum seekers as criminals, implementing the death penalty in a racially biased manner, supplying training to Govts that commit human rights abuses etc.
We need a strategy to oppose racism, bigoted nationalism, & warlike patriotism - to go on the offensive for the changes that can support & extend race & other equality, labour freedoms, economic abundance, peace, & communal well-being: a ‘Great Refusal’.
Americans who care about democracy, justice & the planet have to come together to prevent another Trump administration, which would attempt to introduce the regressive, antidemocratic & dangerously irresponsible policies laid out in the Heritage Foundation's #Project2025
Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the nominee.
Before outlining some essential information about Harris, I'll quickly summarise the process be for choosing the Democratic nominee as described by Newsweek.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Jaime Harrison said that the party would "undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November."
Professor of History & Public Policy at Duke University & author of the terrifying award-winning bestseller 'Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America', Nancy MacLean, recently discussed #Project2025.
Law professor & social critic Kimberlé Crenshaw interviewed MacLean about what the prescriptions in the Heritage Foundation’s #Project2025 mean for parents, public schools, & for multiracial democracy.
CRENSHAW: These wars on curricula are not new, of course; they go far back in our history. What folks might not know is that the Heritage Foundation, the main convenor of #Project2025, cut its teeth on curricular wars in the 1970s.
'The Republican blueprint for power contains the seeds of its own demise. It is not too late to stop the descent of the American political order into tyranny, oligarchy or anarchy', writes Timothy Snyder.
Pete Buttigieg is an American politician and former naval officer who is serving as the 19th United States secretary of transportation. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020, which earned him the nickname "Mayor Pete".
Buttigieg is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Oxford, attending the latter on a Rhodes Scholarship. From 2009 to 2017, he was an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant.
Hitler survived assassination attempts. We know what that led to. Reagan & Thatcher survived assassination attempts. They gave us neoliberalism. Trump survived. He's chosen JD Vance as his running mate. If elected, America will become a dystopian free-market kleptocracy.
The 0.01% is gearing up to all but destroy US democracy.
Leading the charge & donating tens of millions of dollars to Trump's campaign are Silicon Valley's libertarian Tech billionaire extremists, led by Peter Thiel & Elon Musk - two of the most dangerous men on earth.
What's unfolding right now is like something from a dystopian sci-fi novel.
Except it's not fiction - it's real.
And it's a fucking nightmare assault on truth, fairness, equality, minorities, women's right, the environment & humanity, which democracy will struggle to survive.
"What first made Reform UK's white, privately educated multimillionaires Farage, Tice & Rupert Lowe oppose DEI?"
'Diversity Equity Inclusion' is a framework which promotes the fair treatment & full participation of ALL people, but particularly underrepresented groups...
Many people know that the term ‘DEI’ is being weaponized as a racist dog whistle (a coded, deniable bit of language that allows people to communicate ideas that would be too offensive if done explicitly).
There’s nothing new about using racist dog whistles. But the way DEI is used to play into racist sentiments is uniquely powerful, & may well be much more potent than other culture war terms.