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The above cartoon was sent to the people depicted in it. Not one of them deigned to respond to it. Does that sound like real freedom of speech advocacy? In essence, free speech for us, but not for thee. Ah, but Whittington did respond to the email I'd sent prior to my sketching the cartoon. He was outraged that I dared out him as just another virtue-signaler. Below is our brief correspondence............................................................
From: openscholar@princeton.edu <openscholar@princeton.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 9, 2021 8:59 AM
To: Keith E. Whittington <kewhitt@princeton.edu>
Subject: AFA [via OpenScholar @ Princeton]
To Marlo Safi, Culture Reporter, Daily Caller:
First, bravo to you for actually making your email address available.
Increasingly, it seems that those in power positions are not contactable by We, the Plebes. That has certainly been my experience. In any case, I read your article, “Politically Diverse Group Of 200 Academics Form Alliance To Defend Free Speech Among Educators.” From my perspective, as a dissident ex-professor, the 200 elite academic signatories are likely doing nothing more than an exercise in virtue-signaling. What else is new, eh? As an example, in 2014, I tried criticizing Cornel West, one of those elite signatories mentioned in your article. His secretary simply refused to give my criticism to her boss. Does someone with a private gate-keeping secretary sound like someone interested in freedom of expression? Methinks no! For my critical cartoons and correspondence with the secretary, see wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=cornel+west.
As for Princeton, the nexus of the Academic Freedom Alliance, it will not even respond to my attempts to get its library to subscribe to The American Dissident, a journal devoted to freedom of expression. Well, I sent this email to Keith Whittington, chair of the AFA and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Will he bother to respond?
Finally, the problem with most reporters is that they simply report, though often with a touch of scorn or kudos, without any real questioning and challenging at all. The case of Amanda Gorman is striking with that regard—100% blind praise…
From: Keith E. Whittington <kewhitt@princeton.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 9, 2021 9:21 AM
To: todslone@hotmail.com <todslone@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: AFA [via OpenScholar @ Princeton]
Thank you for your interest, but I'm afraid that you are significantly misreading the current university environment if you think joining such a group counts as virtue signaling. This is a quite costly signal for the signatories, who can be expected to be targets of harassment as a consequence of their identifying with a group defending free speech. If standing up for free speech counted as virtue signaling on campus these days, there would be no need for such a group.
Keith
From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 9, 2021 8:05 PM
To: Keith E. Whittington <kewhitt@princeton.edu>
Subject: Re: AFA [via OpenScholar @ Princeton]
Hi Keith,
Thank you for taking the time to respond. However, you ignored my comment regarding one of your signatories, Cornel West. Moreover, it is likely that most of the signatories are tenured and/or, like West, possess the correct pc-mindset and/or skin color, thus not really risking much at all. Charles Sykes was on target when he wrote: “Tenure corrupts, enervates, and dulls higher education. It is, moreover, the academic culture’s ultimate control mechanism to weed out the idiosyncratic, the creative, the nonconformist.” To that observation, I’d add that tenure tends also to weed out rare individuals apt to exercise free speech. Regarding West, how can those like him, who cannot bear criticism, stand for freedom of speech? Also, the signatories will have the full backing of the group. As for me, I spent two decades at diverse institutions of purported higher education, so am quite aware of the “university environment.” Hell, I was fired at the last institution employing me for not obeying the dean’s direct order that I cease responding to criticism lodged against me. Rather truth, than job. It has been my experience that most professors, by far, tend to be adherents of collegiality, team-playing, and see-no-evil, hear-no-evil careerist ladder climbing, rather than adherents of free speech. Harassment, as you call it, needs to be defined as the law defines it. Otherwise, anything can constitute harassment. Professors need to build backbone. In any case, it is my firm belief that you and the other signatories are really not risking much at all. Just the same, hopefully, you might accomplish something to help bolster freedom of speech. Personally, I have always spoken out at the university, as well as out of the university, and never with a group behind me. That is the kind of speech that is most needed on campus and off campus: the individual courage to speak out and without group support. Well, I guess you won’t be introducing your students to The American Dissident…
Au plaisir,
G. Tod
From: George Slone
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2021 9:36 AM
To: fire@thefire.org <fire@thefire.org>
Subject: Elite Members Only! Plebes Need Not Comment! The FIRE, Above Criticism!
To the Faceless FIRE Staff, Who Might Respond:
Why does FIRE not provide a forum for criticizing members of FIRE, including their articles? Without such a forum, a milieu of backslapping and self-congratulating ends up flourishing. As an example, I'd like to send Peter Bonilla criticism of his publicist article on the Academic Freedom Alliance, but his email is simply NOT available to plebes. Does that sound like advocation for freedom of speech (and debate)? Methinks, no. How about you? Is silence also golden at the FIRE? I have criticized three members of AFA, including Haidt, West, and Whittington. The first two remained silent. The latter responded, though fully ignored the essential point made in my criticism: does an elite professor like Cornel West, who possesses a gatekeeper secretary to protect him from uncomfortable criticism, sound like an advocate for freedom of speech and vigorous debate?
From: George Slone
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2021 10:21 AM
To: Keith E. Whittington <kewhitt@princeton.edu>; mcole@uts.columbia.edu <mcole@uts.columbia.edu>; jhaidt@stern.nyu.edu <jhaidt@stern.nyu.edu>; cwspecialassistant01@gmail.com <cwspecialassistant01@gmail.com>
Cc: fire@thefire.org <fire@thefire.org>
Subject: Whittington, West, Haidt, Lukianoff and Bonilla satirized in a new P. Maudit cartoon
To Professors Whittington, West, and Haidt,
You have been satirized in a new P. Maudit cartoon. Be curious. Examine it. Expose your students to it. What precisely is NOT true in it? That is the question you should focus on. If there is a falsity, please do inform me and I will correct it. Finally, why does a free-speech signatory like Cornel West NOT make his email address available to We, the Plebes? Thank you for your hopeful, though doubtful, attention.
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