The feminist author of The Abolition of Sex has become the ultimate example of a new propaganda phenomenon, which denounces leftists as right-wing when they say unpopular things.
Narrated by Jared Moore
Text Published 6/08/2022:
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Listen to This Article - Meet the Censored: Kara Dansky
Matt, please, please, please don’t self censor. Reading all all viewpoints is why I pay for sub stack. Hang tough, man!
The phenomenon which Dansky’s experience illustrates, plays out on near every WaPo comment thread though to lesser degrees. Say the secret word(s) but no dropping duck. You don’t get $50 or a wisecrack from Groucho. What you do reliably get, for thought transgression (nee disagreement) is 1) immediate personal attack, irrelevant as that may be to the discussion 2) that personal attack variably claims you to be a terrorist, Nazi, anti-Semite, Trump lover, Putin fellator, bridge camper outer, weather person to be consulted about current temps in Moscow or Beijing, or vodka taster, dim sum addict etc. 3) the accusation of troll, specifically proscribed in the guidelines, tends to follow in Hasbara playbook-like volleys, far too synchronized to be random, often resembling coordinated Lesley Dart-like defense of her clients Harvey “the Pig” and Woody Allen. 4) vile name-calling meant to bully can be expected and outstrips moderating capacity at times. 5) the final strategy entails variable forms of straw man construction, from attacking things you didn’t say but are implied to have done , ranging to ignoring all but one inessential point in an argument and blitzing that. It used to be said there is no better window into the soul than the things people lie about. Now there is no better window into media editorial bias than the overkill in assault on ideas deemed “dangerous”.