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21st Century McCarthyism

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    #1

    21st Century McCarthyism

    Andrew Cuomo has positioned himself against freedom of speech and in full favour nof the occupation by banning BDS in New York. When I lived in the US I could never figure out how a country with such a fervent belief in freedom of speech could have gone through the McCarthy period, and yet here we are again. What's next, a House Un-Israeli Activities Committee?

    https://theintercept.com/2016/06/06/andrew-cuomo-and-other-democrats-launch-severe-attack-on-free-speech-to-protect-israel/

    The more time passes the more I am convinced that BDS is the ONLY way forward, the only way to promote social justice and to advocate human rights for Palestinians. Cuomo and his ilk are just racist scum.
    Tags: None
    #2
    21st Century McCarthyism

    Is this legal?

    Comment

      #3
      21st Century McCarthyism

      A minor quibble: the order seems to target entities that are actually boycotting/divesting, rather than those who support it. Greenwald kind of elides that distinction until near the end of the article

      Comment

        #4
        21st Century McCarthyism

        There have long been a number of federal laws that prohibit or penalise the participation of US firms in boycotts which the US does not support, going back to the initial Arab League boycott of Israel in 1973.

        I am personally required to certify that I have not been asked to participate in any such boycott each year.

        Comment

          #5
          21st Century McCarthyism

          Comment

            #6
            21st Century McCarthyism

            ursus arctos wrote: I am personally required to certify that I have not been asked to participate in any such boycott each year.
            Certify to whom ...and...asked by whom?

            Comment

              #7
              21st Century McCarthyism

              Yes, I was going to say, I reckon I've asked (in a manner of speaking) everyone on OTF to join the BDS movement

              Comment

                #8
                21st Century McCarthyism

                I was offered the chance to go to Israel to tour and interview a bunch of medtech companies. I weaseled out of it, largely for BDS reasons, but also because that sounds like a fucking nightmare.

                That's my contribution.

                Comment

                  #9
                  21st Century McCarthyism

                  I returned the SodaStream machine that my sister bought us for Christmas a couple of years ago.

                  I'd like to claim BDS motivations, but it's mainly because that's the sort of overpriced claptrap we abhor but that she likes to buy us.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    21st Century McCarthyism

                    The certification is to the Commerce Department. The details are a bit complicated, but are set forth in the link I posted earlier.

                    It only applies to my activities in a professional capacity.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      21st Century McCarthyism

                      In France it's illegal (under hate-speech legislation) to advocate for BDS.

                      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-now-more-repressive-boycott-calls-israel
                      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/woman-arrested-france-t-shirt-critical-israel

                      Britain is introducing laws preventing publicly funded bodies such as councils and universities from engaging in ethical investment (billed as a means to curb BDS).

                      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-accused-of-launching-attack-on-local-democracy-with-new-council-investment-rule-a6786916.html

                      I think that given that there is this sort of reaction, both in Israel where it's now recognised as Israel's biggest existential threat, suggests that BDS is working.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        21st Century McCarthyism

                        This is why I don't support "hate speech" exceptions to free speech. Somebody will always use it to stifle appropriate dissent.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          21st Century McCarthyism

                          Reed John wrote: This is why I don't support "hate speech" exceptions to free speech. Somebody will always use it to stifle appropriate dissent.
                          Free Speech is a bullshit concept anyway.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            21st Century McCarthyism

                            Carniveraux Vulgarry wrote:
                            Originally posted by Bizarre Löw Triangle
                            Free Speech is a bullshit concept anyway.
                            In what sense?
                            In the sense that in liberal societies, it's always been applied to those with a great deal of structural power and denied to those who threaten existing social relations.

                            Actual censorship is present in most societies that value free speech, but equally often, the way that media is structured means that those without structural power may have technically free-speech but are denied any sort of platform.

                            And those who do have structural power are able to use said platforms to deny other people essential freedoms.

                            These structural power relations make freedom of speech, at best a very fuzzy and unhelpful concept.

                            Suppression of hate-speech is important and necessary, for example, in order to protect other essential freedoms. I'd rather the government didn't dictate what is and isn't hate-speech, but the government isn't censoring anti-Israel stuff because it dislikes hate-speech. It could find other pretexts to shut-down anti-Israel speech if it needed to.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              21st Century McCarthyism

                              These structural power relations make freedom of speech, at best a very fuzzy and unhelpful concept.
                              It's fuzziness is why we need very broad protections. Just because it's not always protected the way it should be doesn't mean it isn't useful.

                              Suppression of hate-speech is important and necessary, for example, in order to protect other essential freedoms.
                              No it isn't. It's just a way for those imbalances of power that you mention above to be used against progress under a guise of liberalism.

                              Free speech is the only hope the left has. By definition, the left represents those who aren't in power. As with anything else, If we leave it to those in power to decide what speech is and isn't ok, they'll use it to defend themselves, not make anything better. The censorship of Pro-Palestinian voices at nominally liberal places like UC-Berkeley is a perfect an entirely predictable example of that.

                              Comment

                                #16
                                21st Century McCarthyism

                                Would it have been illegal to boycott the Third Reich in 1933, if this law had existed back then?

                                I can understand the govt withdrawing tax breaks and the like from such companies, but to actually criminalize them seems to go against the US's founding principles. It's not as if the boycott endangers US national security.

                                Comment

                                  #17
                                  21st Century McCarthyism

                                  "National security" is used as a catch-all tool for repressing dissent, but the First Amendment has frequently been an effective tool to fight that sort of thing. It's a never-ending battle.

                                  Comment

                                    #18
                                    21st Century McCarthyism

                                    UC Berkeley cancelled a class about Palestine halfway through the semester, seemingly after receiving angry comments from pro-Israel groups.

                                    Their justification for why the class had to be cancelled does not seem to add up.

                                    Comment

                                      #19
                                      21st Century McCarthyism

                                      Oh, come now. They've provided a handful of justifications...just pick one or two and combine them. There may even be more on the way.

                                      Comment

                                        #20
                                        21st Century McCarthyism

                                        York University, in Toronto, also ran into a dilly-o with a pro-Palestine mural last year.

                                        http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/film-exec-pulls-support-for-york-university-over-pro-palestinian-mural/article28396804/

                                        Comment

                                          #21
                                          21st Century McCarthyism

                                          Props to the law school dean there.

                                          Comment

                                            #22
                                            21st Century McCarthyism

                                            Incandenza wrote: UC Berkeley cancelled a class about Palestine halfway through the semester, seemingly after receiving angry comments from pro-Israel groups.

                                            Their justification for why the class had to be cancelled does not seem to add up.
                                            This is why PCU fails. It always ends-up being used as a tool of the right. Always.

                                            Comment

                                              #23
                                              21st Century McCarthyism

                                              This is a good piece http://mondoweiss.net/2016/09/the-right-to-educate/

                                              And another example of campus hysteria (this time inventing a BDS reaction to something and then presenting it as fact) http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/how-atlantic-magazine-and-mainstream-media-manufactured-bds-scandal-syracuse

                                              Comment

                                                #24
                                                21st Century McCarthyism

                                                Friedersdorf has worked out a pretty standard pattern of bashing anyone in a university who is to the left of him by saying that they oppose free speech. He's done a lot of pieces on that at the Atlantic. I'm guessing that he feels challenged to find out that there are people to the left of him, so he's trying his best to delegitimize them.

                                                Comment

                                                  #25
                                                  21st Century McCarthyism

                                                  Cal has reinstated the course that they cancelled.

                                                  Comment

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