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THREAD: a couple of thoughts on Bari Weiss’s NYPost ‘anti-wokeness’ piece:
1) Despite raising legitimate concerns about growing intolerance of dissent on the left, the hypocrisy here is horrifying, given her own “cancel culture” advocacy (h/t @ggreenwald) https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-her-years-of-attacks-on-the-academic-freedom-of-arab-scholars-who-criticize-israel/
1) Despite raising legitimate concerns about growing intolerance of dissent on the left, the hypocrisy here is horrifying, given her own “cancel culture” advocacy (h/t @ggreenwald) https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-her-years-of-attacks-on-the-academic-freedom-of-arab-scholars-who-criticize-israel/
2) For someone so allegedly concerned about free speech, it’s remarkable that she’s never had anything to say about the BIGGEST free speech suppression effort in the US: the government-led effort to squash criticism of Israel. https://this-is-palestine.simplecast.com/episodes/the-weaponization-of-anti-semitism
3) I know that it’s silly to expect a comprehensive list of active bigotries in America, but given that the last president rose to power on the promise to shut down Muslim entry into the US (& entertained a question about getting rid of Muslims), isn’t it odd to leave them out?
4) This strange advice feels like a particular personal gripe being passive-aggressively turned into generalized principle. Sometimes a private personal note is best, other times joining the public debate has merit. Other times “snitching” on scumbags who cause harm is important.
4 continued) — what’s actually important is to be sincere in your call-out motivation: A sensible person made a mistake? Engage kindly & constructively! A bigoted demagogue is pretending to care about decency? Expose who they are publicly & forcefully!
5) I think Bari is revealing something about herself if she thinks solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter 
was primarily driven by fear of “the mob,” rather than seeing it as a genuine cultural moment of racial solidarity in the country (corporate capitalization notwithstanding).
was primarily driven by fear of “the mob,” rather than seeing it as a genuine cultural moment of racial solidarity in the country (corporate capitalization notwithstanding).
6) Now if you can look past all of the shameless hypocrisy, omissions, & confusion of this piece, the central argument remains correct: We need a more thoughtful social media culture that engages SINCERE disagreements constructively, & we do need personal courage to get it.
