Reading Time: 10 minutes On February 26, oral arguments for two cases came before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), which will have serious implications for online media depending on the ruling. In Moody v. NetChoice LLC, Florida’s attorney general is defending SB 7072, a senate bill from 2021 that imposed neutrality, hosting, and individualized disclosure requirements […]
free speech
Posted inPolitics
US, Argentina, Israel: A world of normalized extremes
Reading Time: 9 minutes One of our greatest challenges in recent years has been combating the normalization of extreme events: from climate disaster, to pandemia, to stark rich-poor divides, to the acceptance of massive wars, religious-nationalist rhetoric, and insurrectionist politics as background noise in our news. This past week offered three examples—in the US, in Argentina, and in Israel—of […]
Posted inFree Expression
When all words do is hurt
Reading Time: 8 minutes Language is a weapon, and where we pay attention is as well. At least that’s what we’re trained to believe, when trying to respond humanely to horrific news.
Posted inFree Expression
The next frontier of book bans: Seahorses and talking crayons
Reading Time: 5 minutes Conservative parents demanding the banning of books and the censorship of schools have a worldview as fragile as glass. They can’t even tolerate the idea of children hearing that they might not be who or what society tells them they are.
Posted inBooks
Book curses and book blessings
Reading Time: 5 minutes When books were rare and precious objects, their owners protected them with curses to deter thieves and vandals. We should adopt that same attitude of repugnance toward modern-day censors.
Posted inFree Expression
There’s no such thing as a free speech absolutist
Reading Time: 5 minutes No one actually supports free speech without restriction—but there’s a big difference between fighting hate and harassment, and censoring news unfavorable to the powerful.
Posted inFree Expression
College activists aren’t ‘snowflakes,’ they’re warriors against bigotry
Reading Time: 7 minutes There’s been a lot of talk in the last few years about how college campuses are overrun with lefty “snowflakes”—students and professors (and even administrators)—who try to shut down free speech because they can’t handle opinions that contradict their existing beliefs. I believe the naysayers are usually mistaken (yet, not always, unfortunately). But, in my […]
Posted inDeep Dive
Fox News’ and Trump’s pants are (still) on fire
Reading Time: 9 minutes If doctors practiced their craft like Fox News pundits do theirs, they would long ago have lost their privilege to treat patients. Which brings me right to the point: Why shouldn’t licensing of journalists be required, as other professionals, such as doctors, already are in many states? And why shouldn’t politicians, as well, be legally […]
Posted inBooks
Rewriting Roald Dahl: Prudish censorship or the arc of progress?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Many classic books, including Roald Dahl’s, teach morals that are repugnant by today’s standards. Can we keep the good parts without dragging along the bad, or does respect for authorial integrity force us to keep them exactly as they are?
Posted inParenting & Family
What rights do parents have over their children’s education?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Religious conservatives want to impose heavy-handed censorship on public schools. We should reject this, but how much control should parents have over what is taught?