Lisa Guenther is the Vanderbilt philosophy professor and former member of Rebecca Tuvel's dissertation who not only was an early signatory of the defamatory "Open Letter" but also offered several public facebook explanations for her conduct. In the course of one of these, the following rather amusing dialogue took place:
Lisa Guenther It's been interesting to see how closely liberal and alt-right discourses on free speech align when black (and) trans people's lives, perspectives, and critical analyses are on the line.
Paul Sparta That's a bit of a low blow. The alt-right/extreme right specializes in trolling and provoking the far left in everything from inciting counter-violence at Berkeley, to appropriating reasonable arguments (like free speech defense) when it tactically suits their aims. No argument here, under the traditional enlightenment paradigm, free speech can indeed cause harm. But if we wish to restrict free speech, I'd like to hear a practicable framework for doing so that would not cause greater harm than the current paradigm. But also, those calling the response to Tuvel's article a witch hunt are exaggerating bigly. Finally, I find calling for Hypatia to retract such a shoddy article completely fair. After all, they admitted it was a mistake. It's not like they are violating a contract with Tuvel.Lisa Guenther It's not a comparison, it's a _structural critique_ of liberalism and its investment in current structures of domination through the deployment of rhetoric such as free speech, civility, or "diversity and inclusion" — which are not _the same_ as the rhetorics and tactics of the alt right, but remain utterly incapable of _fighting_ the alt right — rather than actively confronting domination and struggling for collective liberation.Guy Aitchison 1) That's not a "structural critique" but a rhetorical tactic of deflection and attempted guilt by association. 2) These people's lives are not "on the line" as a result of an article in an academic journal article, that's yet more unhelpful hyperbole. 3) Free speech is not just a "liberal" idea, but an important value that the left should be committed to 4) It is not merely "rhetoric" either, but a fundamental principle for debate and academic exchange 5) While the tactics necessary to fight the alt-right may require suppressing their speech in various forums, it would be a disaster to transfer this approach to settling academic disagreements among colleagues.
Josh Slocum It's a rooting out of heresy, and academic women are gleefully salivating over their part in it. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You can't hide your cruelty and incoherence behind a wall of soft-sounding academic-speak. Your behavior to Tuvel is morally reprehensible.
To be worth using, a detector needs not only (A) not get very many false positives, but also (B) get…