Opinion: NYT Opeds Continue Lecturing Rest Of Us How To Think

Bari Weiss is learning the hard way that you have to be especially careful in the age of ideological echo chambers, especially if your opinion isn't neatly pigeonholed into the corner from which you come out fighting. What happens when you point out that progressives are being called fascists for not dovetailing nicely into the latest iteration of "accepted progressive philosophy?" Well, for one, you get called a fascist or Nazi sympathizer and you know what happens to fascists, "Nazis" and their sympathizers, the inevitable calls for them to lose their jobs. Ms. Weiss warns that "politically fascistic behavior, if not the actual philosophy, is unquestionably on the rise."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thanks goodness for people like <a href="https://twitter.com/CHSommers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CHSommers</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/bariweiss?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bariweiss</a>. Speaking the truth takes tremendous courage in an era of cyberbullying, casual character assassination, and virtual mobbing. <a href="https://t.co/32GA6qmQ5Z">https://t.co/32GA6qmQ5Z</a></p>&mdash; Alex Berezow (@AlexBerezow) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexBerezow/status/971961941596954629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2018</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;Hammered for it quite rightly.&quot;<br><br>You people are actually defending an article that identifies CH Sommers as a &quot;white supremacy radio guest&quot; in its headline in order to attack Bari Weiss, who defended Sommers against attacks from Antifa.<br><br>Get your head checked. <a href="https://t.co/7noLS5L8jw">https://t.co/7noLS5L8jw</a></p>&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/972102524516777984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2018</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Remember: Bari Weiss calls herself a “classic liberal”, the favorite term of alt-righters who mistakenly think they’re cleverly fooling you.</p>&mdash; Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/971598444266770432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2018</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If all you read were Bari Weiss columns you&#39;d start to believe that &quot;progressives criticizing people&quot; is the most urgent crisis facing society today. <a href="https://t.co/kz4xLKK20g">pic.twitter.com/kz4xLKK20g</a></p>&mdash; Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) <a href="https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/971522630758014976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2018</a></blockquote>

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https://thegoldwater.com/news/19432-Factual-Feminist-Named-Male-Supremacist-Enabler-by-SPLC

She uses Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, registered Democrat and second wave feminist, as an example. The Goldwater previously wrote about Dr. Sommers being marked a "male supremacist enabler" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group whose purported mission is to track down dangerous extremists. She also mentions Laura Kipnis, a feminist film-studies professor at Northwestern. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born former Muslim and feminist who calls for reform of Islam is also marked a dangerous extremist and "propagandist" by the SPLC. Mary Beard, of Cambridge, a self-described "bloody lefty" was also not progressive enough for the hardliners and was censured for her "white 'feminist' racism" for her controversial opinion on the Oxfam scandal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How do you reconcile statements like this with your own, well-publicized efforts to get professors you disagreed with fired? I’m genuinely curious.</p>&mdash; Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) <a href="https://twitter.com/annamerlan/status/971003484316332033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I taught at Columbia when <a href="https://twitter.com/bariweiss?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bariweiss</a> helped front a vicious, racist, mendacious and, thankfully, failed attempt to smear many of my colleagues. The fact that she can even pretend otherwise, and that she has any voice at all at <a href="https://twitter.com/nytopinion?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytopinion</a>, is astonishing. <a href="https://t.co/rwYVR5W6sW">https://t.co/rwYVR5W6sW</a></p>&mdash; James Schamus (@JamesSchamus) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesSchamus/status/971800868378021888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2018</a></blockquote>

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It should come as no suprise that Weiss has been attacked by both sides. Much of the uproar is from liberals and progressives who are upset at their fascistic digital book burnings (to borrow a turn of phrase from our editor-in-chief, Major Burdock) and assault on free speech. For the most part it's catty and petty and the result, most likely, of the kind of hurt feelings you get when a good friend calls you out on something you knew you were doing and didn't want to admit. Some better arguments exist, related to hypocrisy where she herself had stood against freedom of speech, but most of this is drowned out by what The Wrap calls "Mean Girls styled sniping."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Guys, I&#39;m starting to think Bari Weiss isn&#39;t very good at her job</p>&mdash; Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/971527904281624578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2018</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The People I Like Should Be Able To Say Whatever They Want Without Criticism And All My Critics Need To Shut Up by Bari Weiss</p>&mdash; Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/971509459431419904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2018</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">can’t think of anyone who has managed to go from “who?” to “ah christ not again” faster than Bari Weiss</p>&mdash; Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandyLJensen/status/971555795337990144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Regardless of how you feel about Weiss and her opinions, the irony of shouting down someone and calling them a fascist for calling out progressives and liberals for shouting down their own and calling them fascists is… well, ironic.

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/opinion/were-all-fascists-now.html