Norman Finkelstein...

[frandroid]

Norman Finkelstein and Christian Parenti (hadn't heard of him before either, but he's the son of Michael) were speaking at the public library tonight. (The evening had been organized before Oct. 7, so they both apoligized that they weren't going to engage "the events since then" very much.) The topic was academic freedom but they both ended up mostly speaking against the wOKEnESS of the left. Some of it was against cancel culture, which I'm fine with, but the other part was "we shouldn't cater to people's feelings," to which I'm like... Why do you care then? Finkelstein's argument was very ACLU, "if you want to have the right to speak they also should get to speak", though the other part was that you shouldn't feel smug and satisfied with your truth, and it should be regularly tested. Fine.

Like it's not that I disagree that much with the ACLU take--Finkelstein asked how many people think academics should be able to say what they want outside the classroom, most people raised their hand; he asked how many people thought that an academic should be able to say "Israel should kill a million people in Gaza" and I was one of only 10 people out of a few hundred to raise my hand. He wasn't set on what an academic could say in the classroom though, when going outside their area of expertise. But to me the question has gone beyond freedom of speech, to platforming. CNN platformed a stochastic terrorist for a year and elected him president. I'm a lot more interested in tackling real questions of speech like that.

A person of colour at the end asked a question about how this was all nice and liberal but people are dying in Gaza, etc. It's unfortunately that she wasn't able to ask a more pointed question because the gist was really relevant, and I had a question/comment of my own in a similar line to throw at them, but they only took 3 questions, which was a shame. (One of the questions was "how do you solve racism". Come on people, stay on topic.)

I found Finkelstein quite engaging. Oh yeah, my question. I was going to say that it's nice to debate academic freedom, but the main problem nowadays is not that right-wingers disagree with us, but that they gaslighting us about holding our values on one hand, something called hasbara in Hebrew, while committing genocide on the other. That's the real challenge of our times (not just with the Zionists but the Right everywhere). I wanted to hear him talk about that.

Comments

[cactus_rs]

Finkelstein gave an interview on my favorite lefty podcast to promote his new book and the host had to give his "now I don't agree with everything he says..." pre episode disclaimer, which whatever, he interviews a fairly wide swathe of political stances on the show so that's nothing new. I think he's a good interviewer and I like the (deliberate?) attempt to keep from being an echo chamber while sticking to a larger ethical principle (and not platforming actual shitheads).

Finkelstein raised a couple interesting points alongside some more "old man yells at clouds" shit, but then went into a really weird and unnecessary tear into Judith Butler and gender that was, to me, unhinged. Makes it hard for me to take him seriously since he was 100% being.... smug and satisfied in his truth, to use his own language. It was the first episode I had to tap out of; Finkelstein mostly seemed to want to vent spleen instead of discussing anything.

Who hurt you, Norman??

[frandroid]

The Zionists, for one, but it's really curious why he's turned into a TERF. The talk didn't get much into that but I was prepared to ask "why do you care?" if he had.

There were a couple protesters outside, one with a sign saying "The worst Jew is a self-hating Jew".

[sabotabby]

Finkelstein's kind of lost it, understandably, because he's legitimately been hounded by maniacs, but also unfortunately, as I can't get beyond the ACLU's stance when there are people being murdered because of stochastic terrorism. And because honestly, the right has free speech and the left never will.

[frandroid]

I like how you put that.

[katuah]

oh, me too

[sabotabby]

I think about it a lot.