I don't believe that all of the people who signed that Harper's letter are the flavor of rich white person who is mad they're getting dragged for bad Twitter opinions and calling that "cancel culture," but enough of them were that that is the message that's being elevated.

This is deeply personal to me because right now the person being hurt the most is @emilyvdw, whose crime was expressing concern and disappointment (not calling for an apology, let alone his removal) of her Vox colleague Matt Yglesias at Vox for being a signatory.

This has resulted in one of the worst harassment campaigns I've seen, and I have Seen Some Harassment Campaigns. Two signatories have egged it on, and neither have condemned what is happening.

They don't want free speech, they want free speech FOR THEM. https://twitter.com/emilyvdw/status/1281155789810327553

(Also, ignoring the ones I've been subjected to, weird that the worst harassment campaigns against people I've personally known have been against trans women.

WEIRD)

And here's the thing, the first thing I thought when I woke up today was that, I've never used my platform to redirect my followers to bully and harass someone I disagreed with. I've never even really felt the temptation to do that, but BOY do I feel it right now.

When the silencing tactic is brigading someone until it becomes impossible to exist in a public space, it makes it very hard to take the high road because in cases like this, there is absolutely no justice. Just weathering the storm until the brigade gets bored.

But suffice to say, for the arrogant dingbats egging this on (who have a long track record of being shitty to trans people, weird) this is what free speech looks like - their critics bullied off the platform for dragging these rich white people for bad twitter opinions.

That's why that letter is so disingenuous - this isn't about creating an atmosphere where ideas can be exchanged and challenged freely, this is an atmosphere where these rich white people with no skin in the game can spout their bullshit without pushback.

Emily is a close friend and one of the most measured, thoughtful and kind people I know and her response to the Harper's letter was not only perfectly reasonable, it was also (in theory) exactly what that letter was CALLING for. We of course know now that it wasn't.

I'm too furious to function so I'm going to take a hint from Emily and log off Twitter for a while before I legit succumb to the dark side. #jessesingalshutthefuckupchallenge