Now they are coming for Feminist Current

[nails2018]

Interesting piece from Meghan Murphy

www.feministcurrent.com/2018/11/20/twitter-wants-shut-right-wants-join-dont-think-either/

Her Twitter thread about the piece:

twitter.com/MeghanEMurphy/status/1065365918094516224

She's spot on that this isn't a "right vs left" issue

Yes. I find it perturbing and disconcerting that it's the right that is more willing to engage because of a default respect for free speech than the current left.

And, as ever, I've very concerned for what this means for respect for evidence and its use in public debate.

Twitter believes in free speech for all... except for women.

It is ironic that the right are speaking out. I am so disappointed in the left. I always knew deep down that the left was a misogynistic mess but didn't want to face it. Meanwhile women are being hounded out of the public sphere and that is really worrying.

I don't think it is a case of right vs left. I mean, a certain section of the Tory party are trying to push through a self-id bill, while the Communist party and the Morning Star have come out in support of women. I think the TWAW brigade are comprised of the liberal section of both right and left, the centrists whose views are not dissimilar. In this country it would be blue Labour and red Tories.

I don’t find it surprising at all that the left are unwilling to engage. I think I’m pretty central politically, But I’ve always thought that BBC, guardian etc have always been as biased as anything in RW media.
I think people are only noticing now, because it’s the first time they’re disagreeing and ‘towing the line’ of being a good liberal or whatever

*NOT towing the line

I think it is very important that we engage with those we may disagree with on various issues, and don’t think it serves us to ignore, mock, or dismiss people because they don’t share our exact political ideology. I am genuinely interested in speaking with people I may disagree with on various issues and am open to the possibility that we may agree on some ideas and not others. I think we should, as leftists and feminists, challenge and question our own ideas and mantras, rather than become too comfortable in the echo chamber.

I completely agree with the sentiment. Talking to people you don't agree with, who might have different experiences to yours, means you might learn something. Challenging and questioning our own ideas, thinking and learning are so important.

I suspect that the Right, here and in North America, are simply more used to being battered for their views, whether Brexit, pro-Trump or whatever.

Many people go with the woke flow on Twitter, Fb, the Guardian, the Labour Party etc and don't speak up, as long as they agree with them or the issues dont really matter to them. But get a rude awakening when they do and they try to speak up. Only to find that newspapers like the Mail have been fighting a long battle for a free press and the right to report things that go against the liberal consensus.

This does not mean that you need to agree with the Mail on all or many things. The idea that there is a liberal right-think is wrong, but that it does not mean that you can't share views of the liberal consensus on most things. The important thing is that you develop your views on your own and are willing to test them by listening to other contrary views.

Its almost the reverse of the 60's when liberal Jewish lawyers in the US were prepared to defend the right to free speech even when their clients were deeply unsavory.

Free speech and open debate are fundemental to a democracy. Canada, Twitter, Facebook and Guardian: when did you stop understanding that?

I no longer believe leftist positions are necessarily most right or most ethical. I no longer believe everyone on the right is wrong about everything. I do not believe all those on the right necessarily have ill intentions, and suspect that many, like those on the left, believe they are working towards a better world. I don’t believe that it’s productive to position everyone who disagrees with the left as “right wing,” and therefore an enemy.

Well she has realised something valuable

The left (and I consider myself left leaning) are increasingly pushing this narrative that they are right on an issue simply because they are left wing. that’s a very dangerous stance to have because it discourages doubt and discourages people from dispassionately examining an idea or stance.

I’ve certainly examined my own political leanings as a result of this issue.