Here are just a few words to start off with that might not mean anything to some people - there's also a video from C
A hard-hitting expose that shines a light on the powerful conservative forces that have waged a multi-decade battle to hijack the meaning of free speech--and how we can reclaim it.
There's a critical debate taking place over one of our most treasured rights: free speech. ..
August 22, 2019
The Case Against Free Speech
P.E. Moskowitz talked about his book,
The Case against Free Speech: The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent, in which he argued that the term “freedom of speech” is being defined and redefined by the left and the right to advance their agendas.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?463545-1
People in this 53:11 video. There is a transcript available*.
* This transcript was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Everything You Think You Know About 'Free Speech' is A Lie
How far-right operatives manufactured the crisis of free speech with books, think tanks - and billions of dollars
By P.E. Moskowitz 20 Aug 2019
READ MORE
Source: https://www.thenation.com/
__________________________________________________________________________________
BOOK REVIEW IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Case Against Free Speech:
The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent
P.E. Moskowitz. Bold Type, $28 (272p) ISBN 978-1-568588-643
"In this incisive treatise, journalist Moskowitz (How to Kill a City) argues that the concept of free speech has been distorted as a cover for maintaining existing systems of power.
The author examines the 2017 Charlottesville far-right “free speech rally” that escalated into a neo-Nazi parade culminating in the murder of a progressive activist.
Moskowitz then analyzes recent incidents on college campuses that have inflamed the right, including the cancellation of a 2017 speaking engagement by conservative author Charles Murray after protests at Middlebury College and demonstrations at Reed College calling for a more inclusive curriculum.
The term free speech, Moskowitz claims, has been co-opted by conservative activists as a means to spread their ideology to college campuses. Moskowitz recounts a long history of conservatives censoring the left while claiming their own speech rights are being violated, noting examples of jailed socialist dissidents and union members during WWII, as well as present-day campaigns of harassment orchestrated by conservative organizations against professors and students critical of Israel or right-wing causes.
Moskowitz asserts that the true free speech “crisis” is that only the wealthiest (and whitest) American voices have real influence and that “massively overhauling our government” is the only way to change that.
The analysis here is keen, complex, and well-organized. It probably won’t convince right-wing readers, but others will appreciate it. (Aug.)
PLEASE NOTE: there are more details at the source provided above
George Ciccariello-Maher Visiting Scholar, Hemispheric Institute
Everything You Think You Know About 'Free Speech' is A Lie
