by Judith Curry

A change of topic.

I’m running out of steam on COVID-19.  Still collecting articles, we’ll see if i do any more threads on that topic (of course I hope that Nic will have some new analyses for us.)

I’ve written a number of posts on the topic of freedom of speech [link].  6 years ago, I thought the biggest threat to free speech was Michael Mann’s frivolous ‘libel’ lawsuits.  Then circa 2016, we saw the craziness on campuses, with cancelling speakers and sanctioning faculty members who were doing ‘violence’ to the campus snowflakes by talking about uncomfortable issues.

From the perspective of 2020, all that seems positively ‘quaint.’ What we have been seeing for the past year in the U.S. (apart from China/ don’t seem to be seeing this elsewhere in the western world?) is mind boggling not to mention horrifying.

No time to write anything original on this topic, but here is a collection of articles that I’ve flagged recently, should provide fodder for some interesting discussion.

Bari Weiss’ resignation letter from the NYTimes [link]

Reason:  Bari Weiss’ resignation from the NYTimes [link]

Guardian:  Cancel culture doesn’t stifle debate, but it does challenge the old order [link]

Harper’s Magazine:  A letter on justice and open debate [link]

Lawrence Krauss:  The ideological corruption of science [link]

Quillette:  Yes there is such a thing as cancel culture [link]

Quillette:  Arguing in America [link]

In defense of reactionary liberalism [link]

The groupthink pandemic [link]

On critics and bullies [link]

James Flynn:My book defending free speech has been pulled [link]

Three ideas to end the rot on campus [link]

Jordan Peterson:  The activists are now stalking the hard scientists [link]

Today’s must-read: academic fired for research results showing, as so many other studies have done, police shootings in the US show few signs of racial bias. Global petition of 1700 ignored. https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/06/resignation.html

If its not ‘cancel culture,’ what kind of a culture is it? [link]

Steven Pinker beats cancel culture attack [link]

Tribalism comes for pandemic science [link]

via Climate Etc.

https://ift.tt/2B04bIP

July 14, 2020 at 07:10PM