Freedom of Expression Archives

In Defence of Argument: “Intellectual Freedom and the Culture Wars” by Piers Benn

In the closing pages of Intellectual Freedom and the Culture Wars, Piers Benn writes: I was motivated to write this book because there was something that mattered to me, that…

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7 min

Words Don’t Hurt, Ideas Do.

I am often told that, as a writer, I should recognize the power of words. As a crafter of poetry and prose, they tell me, surely I must understand the…

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7 min

Culture & Media

Brave New Literary World

I recently saw a tweet by writer Thomas Chatterton Williams that said, “We are going to need very brave novelists again.” My first reaction was that he’s right. My second…

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8 min

Politics

The Soft Mob: Intolerance and the New Definition of “Harm”

In the festival of non-sequiturs that was the reaction to the Harper’s letter, two equally specious rebuttals rose to the fore: the first, that freedom of expression has become a…

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5 min

Politics

Hobbes, Locke and Mill: In Defence of Tolerance

The traditional liberal call that we should extend tolerance to our opponents has been replaced by a demand for recognition and acceptance that is paradoxically intolerant towards those who do…

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8 min

Politics

What Yoram Hazony Gets Wrong About Cancel Culture

The open letter in Harper’s Magazine on the dangers of ideological conformity and the suppression of speech, signed by more than 150 leading writers and intellectuals, has been explosively controversial.…

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10 min

Politics

Self-Cancel Culture and the Threat of Moderate Wokeness

Liberalism’s defenders usually describe illiberalism as comprised of two distinct threats: the authoritarian right and the culturally totalitarian left. However, this framing misrepresents the situation. The dangers posed by the…

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8 min

The Problem with the Concept of Cancel Culture

The phrase cancel culture has been all over the internet over the past few weeks. The publication of the Harper’s letter defending free speech and a number of high profile…

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6 min

Psychology

A Therapist’s Plea for Freedom of Speech

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.—Frederick Douglass. The single best predictor of a positive…

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6 min

Culture & Media

The Historian Who Came in from the Chill

I am in the sunset of life, and I feel it to be my special mission to tell people what they are not prepared to hear.—Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Elizabeth Cady…

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6 min

Are Calls for Open Debate Too Little Too Late?

In Harper’s Magazine this past week over 150 prominent intellectuals and bestselling authors, such as Malcolm Gladwell, J. K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky and others signed a letter that…

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3 min

Politics

Open Letters in the Age of the Cultural Commissar

This week, Harper’s magazine published “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” The letter contains a reaffirmation of liberal values: a commitment to open debate, a refusal to ostracize others…

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10 min

Culture & Media

Does the Internet Still Give Us a Voice?

Photo by Markus Spiske From its birth in the mid-1990s, the web has held out the allure of individual empowerment. It spares us from having to slog to the bank to…

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5 min

Culture & Media

The Death of Comedy

Sanitation departments aren’t usually controversial. New York City’s sanitation department’s Twitter account is full of zero-waste tips, charity work, and employees rescuing kittens. What does it take to make a…

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5 min

Politics

Is France Charlie?

France has been a crucible of radical philosophy since the eighteenth century, and was the pre-eminent centre for the arts in the nineteenth and twentieth. It was France to which…

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Freedom of Expression

In Defence of Argument: “Intellectual Freedom and the Culture Wars” by Piers Benn

Words Don’t Hurt, Ideas Do.

Brave New Literary World

The Soft Mob: Intolerance and the New Definition of “Harm”

Hobbes, Locke and Mill: In Defence of Tolerance

What Yoram Hazony Gets Wrong About Cancel Culture

Self-Cancel Culture and the Threat of Moderate Wokeness

The Problem with the Concept of Cancel Culture

A Therapist’s Plea for Freedom of Speech

The Historian Who Came in from the Chill

Are Calls for Open Debate Too Little Too Late?

Open Letters in the Age of the Cultural Commissar

Does the Internet Still Give Us a Voice?

The Death of Comedy

Is France Charlie?

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