The increasingly common resort to diktats by U.S. authorities is a notable feature of contemporary American society — in all spheres, writes Michael Brenner.
Denial of civil liberties, accompanied by punishment for anybody who exposes those violations, has become commonplace in contemporary America.
Yet, nothing that the nation has experienced — and that the more discerning protest — prepared us for the grotesque spectacle on display in the brutal suppression of free speech on university campuses.
What we witness is the iron fist of autocracy employed to intimidate, to hurt, to deter those who would question — however peaceably — the right of the powers-that-be to impose their confected version of the truth on the public. Moreover, it is grounded on an arbitrary assumption of power having no basis in law or customary practice.
Two singular features of this situation focus our attention. First, there is the stunning near unanimity of agreement by all segments of society’s elites on the rightness of the ruling narrative — and on the actions they take to enforce it. (more...)
A Brutal Suppression of Speech
“Whose students? Our students? Whose CUNY? Our CUNY! You’ll have to get through us to get to our students!” @CUNY faculty protest student arrests at @CityCollegeNY last week and call on @ChancellorCUNY to ask for withdrawal of charges pic.twitter.com/3Q2oTPvc8N
— Aviva Stahl (@stahlidarity) May 6, 2024
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