When the neo-nazis chanted and ranted about putting Jews in ovens in Charlottesville, they also said anybody arguing that calls for genocide ought to be quieted was oppressing them. They, too, wondered where had gone "freedom" and "objectivity".
It's a weird sort of freedom that one wants, to threaten to burn another's house down with her whole family inside, or to, after the fact, explain why the arson and murder was for the dead's very own good. And it's a stranger sort of objectivity, that would render one morally inert in the face of threats of or cheerleading for ethnic cleansing.
From what I saw there was a good deal of thoughtful discourse around just why people found the piece in question so objectionable.
This kind of response is consistent with alt-right tactics which use liberals' and leftists' own commitments to openness against them in bad faith. Are we to really believe earnest apologists for colonial oppression and murder, if they had their way, would be so open themselves in their ascendance?
And, anyway, using Willis' own logic, why not mount a serious defense of the content rather than sad-sack concern trolling?
-R.
On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 02:31:56PM +0100, Willis N. Churnocht wrote:
> The removal of Gilley's writing is a sad state of affairs.
>
> We must either learn to live with an opposing argument, or construct a counter-argument.
>
> To shut Gilley's argument down completely is counter-productive and symptomatic of the regressive left, which has alienated many.
>
> If we introduce a blanket ban on arguments for colonialism, why not do the same for Marxism?
>
> After all, Marxist-leaning articulations of politics were responsible for vastly more deaths across the twentieth century than any right-leaning regimes. Yet Marxism is glorified in the social sciences.
>
> The bottom line is that 'I'm so offended by this' should not provide a legitimate means for educated and critical academics to wash their hands of an argument.
>
> Whither academia's freedom, objectivity and critical foundations?
>
> Peace, WC x
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