6pm debate tonight - Julie Bindel & Ayaan Hirsi Ali

[EarthSight]

Here's the link -

Be there or be square!

I only heard the opening statements, but I agree with pps that AHA was very good indeed - lucid and focused. JB was not good - came across as someone with an axe to grind and didn't even attempt to define terms. BB started quite well, but also wasn't clear. KA was shambolic, and spoke so sloppily that I couldn't follow his argument even when I could understand what he was saying...

She made it clear that she supports cancel culture as long as it's not directed at her or people she likes! I thought that was so stupid, and I'm amazed that even the intellectual slugs arguing on the other side couldn't do anything with that.

This is one of the inherent problems with figuring out what is and isn't free speech, where the line is drawn as to what warrants deplatforming or someone losing work opportunities.

It's not easy because to be consistent you do have to defend things you consider dreadful in order to retain the right to speak about things you consider important (which other people may find dreadful).

I've thought about it a lot and like most people I don't think my position is completely consistent 100% of the time.

Yes, his question was so stupid - especially after AHA had just been talking about JKR and how the attacks on her were silencing other women. That just having a platform didn't mean that cancelling didn't have an effect. So even if he had just been ignorant, he could have listened to her words and not asked her such a stupid question. AHA was the only one who knew what she was talking about and had the ability to express it clearly and powerfully.

Poor volume made it difficult to hear some of it, particularly Kehinde (so I didn't hear the Mein Kampf) and it took ages to get started, with Freedland wittering on and on.
It was confusing because it's a ridiculous term to begin with, so it's foreseeable that the question would crop up. No point in setting that as the topic only to be asking in the middle What does it mean to cancel someone? Well you can't actually. You can cancel an appointment and event or an arrangement. Then 'no platforming' was mentioned and did someone suggest it was unsatisfactory too? And they all have different agendas, so...off it went in various one-sided ways.

The most amusing thing was when Julie Bindel suddenly got up and wandered off to search for something at the back of the room! It must have been her glasses as I noticed her wearing them later.