That’s a very slight paraphrase of a line from Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist. In Kendi’s telling—his version is about racists and antiracists and racial inequities—it’s the air-tight justification for an “anti-racist constitutional amendment” and a consequent “Department of Antiracism” (I wonder who should be in charge of that?). It is also the syllogism that justifies increasingly aggressive deplatforming measures in our digital world. Who wouldn’t want to kick the “extremists” off social media, right? These spaces can’t be neutral about something as dangerous as wrongthink. You’re not an extremist are you?
But at least social media isn’t “real,” or mentioned in the Constitution, the author of “The Conservative Case for Depersoning Everyone to My Right” will say. Twitter and Facebook are private companies, platforms for entertainment. A censor is a government position. Besides, they made fun of me.
Read Full Article »