Owen Jones comes out fighting for "Actual Free Speech"

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

https://x.com/ucu/status/1722666107163832603?s=46&t=SPorwN-mokktL467rcZ57g

"We should start a new campaign for actual free speech says @OwenJones84

It's time to take a stand"

Looking forward to him unblocking all the women he's blocked on Twitter and hearing what they have to say. Free speech is for everyone, right?

Wonder if he watched the IEA debate with Helen Joyce, Freda Wallace and Peter Tatchell? You’d be hard-pressed to watch that display and still be on the side of the Wallaces of this world.

This debate, for anyone who didn’t see it. Unfortunately it cuts off abruptly at the end, mid-debate, but it’s an eye-opener. They’d’ve been better off inviting Owen Jones to be a panellist, perhaps they did, and he turned it down.

@CountZacular

I think he's definitely referring to prominent GC figures here, among others:

"You know, the way they tried to redefine it was a right of powerful people to say, often bigoted, prejudiced, worse, more extreme things than that about minorities that are marginalised without any right of anyone to respond to what they said, that even the very act of characterising their speech as inflaming prejudice against often relatively voiceless minorities, that’s an attack on free speech. Even though we hear that people who claim they’re cancelled, who do so from their newspaper columns, from television screens, from their book deals, you know, the whole thing is ludicrous."

This man sounds worried for himself.

He makes perfect, internal, sense.

In his mind... people with power are using free speech to be mean to people without. People with power should shut up and be cancelled. People without power should speak. Women are people with power. Conservatives are people with power. People who don't agree with him are people with power. They all need to STFU and be cancelled.

He is a person without power. A poor man who is constantly harassed by meanies. His treatment is analogous to the Palestinians currently being killed. And therefore he should get free speech as both a proxy for them and because he says so, as an oppressed rich white man with access to column inches.

It's neat really. As long as you firmly control who you say has power. And make sure the Venn diagram is always with you on the 'right' side.

Each time OJ posts something all I see are replies disagreeing and disputing everything he says.
Who actually considers him to be a credible journalist and who would ever start their argument with "Owen Jones says.."
He spends all his time tweeting Krappenshite, it must be exhausting being him, trying to stay relevant.

You'd think that the many, many responses citing OJ in response to the Guardian's request for examples of misogyny would have made him reconsider his position on women's rights.

What I wouldn't give to see Owen Jones debate Helen Joyce.

Who actually considers him to be a credible journalist

Kath Viner is the Grauniad editor in chief, isn't she?

I just had to tell my cousin not to plan a trip to Europe with her son, who looks very Jewish for fear of his safety. This inverts the oppression pyramid, as they are educated and well-to-do but tell little Owen ...

Looks very Jewish?

You mean in terms of how he dresses?

Most likely his facial features. Lots of jewish people do look very Jewish.

No, my cousin is blonde, her son has black hair, olive skin and features we Jews immediately recognize. Others do too. I was in Greece many years ago during an Israeli conflict and was stopped in the street by Greeks who read me as Jewish and remonstrated with me. It's scary.

Maybe I'm just oblivious to these things but the only person I've ever been able to identify as Jewish other than Orthodox Jewish men based on their clothing was someone with an obviously Jewish surname who told me he spoke Hebrew and had just got back from a year of living in Israel.

Are "Jewish facial features" really something people notice and immediately identify as Jewish?

I know the stereotype about noses, obviously, but was under the impression that referring to that was considered an antisemitic trope, and the Jewish people I actually know have completely unremarkable noses anyway.

Gosh, that is really odd. And yes, I imagine it is pretty scary if you're on the receiving end of it.

@Brefugee..

"The editor of The Guardian has defended the paper from accusations it silenced gender-critical writers."

You usually have to be Jewish or socialize with Jews to see it. To you he'd probably look Arabic.
Northern European Jews come from a founder population of 300 people and intermarriage meant we're all related. 5th cousins

Yes, there is definitely a Jewish 'look'. It is not just about noses, there is 'something', a quality, I can't quite put my finger on just yet. Not all Jewish people have this 'look', but many do. My friend's daughter looks incredibly Jewish for example, and if I didn't know she was Jewish I'd guess so straightaway.

He has blocked me, he's a very sad little man but an excellent source for memes! 😂

and the answer to that is: we have the receipts you fucking idiot😀

How can he be so stupid not to understand that the notion of 'genuine' free speech is almost a contradiction in terms. Genuine as opposed to what?

Is it true that if LOJ says something and nobody hears him then he is still wrong?

Where is this quote from please?
I can't find it on the the thread!

It can't come too soon.

There's an article in the Telegraph, most of which I'll bet is paraphrasing this thread

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/10/from-cancel-culture-zealots-to-free-speech-warriors/

https://archive.ph/boNbc archive link

His ears look weird on that photo. They look either too small or there's some sort of forced perspective going on and they're actually a couple of feet behind him. Or perhaps it's just me.

'To say that Jones et al are inconsistent on free speech isn’t strictly accurate. They’re incredibly consistent… in their double standards. They only ever defend free speech and the right to protest for those who happen to agree with them. They’re fierce supporters of the freedom to think exactly as they do.'