The Blue Stack Strikes Back – Tablet Magazine
It s no exaggeration to say that the emergence of this vertically integrated aristocracy threatens the liberal democratic nature of the United States. Institutions like the news media, major corporations, and the government don t naturally align in this way except in the most extreme circumstances when the general public itself may be naturally united, like in the immediate aftermath of an external shock such as Pearl Harbor or 9/11.
But to the functionaries of the blue stack, every day might as well be 9/11. There s always some form of crisis that demands complete uniformity of thought across all sectors of U.S. society. If anyone steps out of line, they can be disappeared. Even the president of the United States was subject to a virtual ban across almost all sectors of social media. What makes anyone think that they are any less vulnerable than he was?
It’s very upsetting. I’ve grown used to speaking my mind, especially on this blog. It serves as a vent which permits me to function in the academic environment, where speech is, uh, considerably, more, shall we say, problematic, at least outside of an evolving yet narrow consensus. And as you know, one must not engage in problematic speech! But it seems like ever so gradually, but suddenly all at once, the overall environment of free speech in our society is sort of evaporating. I hope it’s just a soon-to-finished-with phase.
But I fear the university will be the last institution to recover from this virus, just as it was one of the first to succumb, if it recovers at all. And this goes, even more sadly, for small and formerly cute institutions.
Just as bad would be, as I fear it might be, a similar plague that might afflict what I call “red” areas. In such places, will it be possible, say, for gay persons to go? For anyone to speak openly about political issues? For example, I happen to be in a “mixed” marriage. LWJ is, I’m somewhat sorry to say, a Democrat, at least she used to be. She’s a Connecticut Yankee, but from Catholic stock. So she comes by it honestly. I don’t keep track of her politics on a day to day basis. But we like to go about, as married couples do, and say what we think. Sometimes I even learn things that way. Where will we be able to do this? Will there only be ribbons of free speech, in those purple areas on the borders of the red and blue? Or maybe there will be none at all. I hope it’s just a phase we’re going through, mostly because of the pandemic. We’ll just have to see.