Everyone Can Hear You Scream

Not Samizdat.Title: “The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech”

Author: Kirsten Powers

Rank: 36

Blurb: “Lifelong liberal Kirsten Powers blasts the Left’s forced march towards conformity in an exposé of the illiberal war on free speech. No longer champions of tolerance and free speech, the ‘illiberal Left’ now viciously attacks and silences anyone with alternative points of view. Powers asks, ‘What ever happened to free speech in America?'”

Review: “Miss Powers is a USA Today contributor and a Fox News contributor. These are both centrist mass outlets.”

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Footnote: We’re not aware of The Left using the power of government to silence bureaucratic and scientific discussion of climate change, nor are we aware of The Left limiting school instruction of sex education to abstinence, nor are we are of The Left calling in SWAT teams on outspoken feminist videogame developers, nor are we aware of The Left preventing putative liberals from profitably pandering to idiots via multiple national media outlets, but hey, we haven’t been paying exhaustive attention.

The Silencing [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

19 Comments

It’s not silence. It’s ignoring right wing fucks. If the right were actually right about important things then I might actually consider their points.

So she’s written a book complaining about her inability to speak by, say, writing a book.

@ManchuCandidate: Worked for Bubba, found Jeebus, yaps on Fox. Apparently some folks don’t like what she says, and have the impertinence to tweet her about it.

Although that gives her too much credit. Given that this book is a Regnery joint, it’s just a paint-by-numbers panderthon. There’s a legit discussion to be had about Lefty circular firing squads, but you won’t find it here.

Sigh. I wish the ending of Mad Men was the Sopranos.

@nojo:
Every side has circular firing squads but lefty ones are more stupid.

@ManchuCandidate: I have to wait until midnight PT before it shows up on iTunes, but regarding Sopranos, read something the other day which finally explains the Blackout for me. Very straightforward — spoiler alert, Tony dies — painfully obvious once the method is pointed out, but I could never make sense of it.

@ManchuCandidate: You wish it had been more like The Sopranos? Bear in mind, I caught the last scene of The Sopranos, because I wanted to see what all the hype was about, but I didn’t watch the series itself.

@nojo: Students at my alma mater were among those that took a dump on “free speech” (as it’s commonly understood, not as it’s actually defined) during the commencement speaker foofaraw last year. Heaven forfend anyone should ever be asked to listen to someone whose opinion might differ from their own. I just can’t with that strain of so-called liberalism.

Now that “Call the Midwife” is over for the season, maybe I can watch some baseball.

@nojo: I never understood the hate for the finale of The Sopranos. That said, I liked the Mad Men finale more, except for the little-too-sweet rom-com moment of Peggy realizing she loved Stan – that was totally a bone-throw to the Team Steggy fans of the show.

@SanFranLefty: Since I saw Sopranos a year late on DVD, I can’t speak to the shock of the ending, since by then I had long since knew it.

But I had always been confused by the ending, until last week. When the method is pointed out — we’re seeing Tony’s POV every time he looks at the door, until the final time, when his POV is cut short — it makes sense.

But it doesn’t make visceral sense: You don’t feel it, in the moment, as it happens. It’s very clever, and properly foreshadowed, but I think it’s ultimately a failure. As David Chase intended it, there wasn’t supposed to be any confusion: You were supposed to know why Tony saw nothing with that last glance, because Tony was no longer there to see it. He was shot from behind, and never even knew it.

And Mad Men? Well, the Steggy moment was cute, if not quite earned.

@SanFranLefty: Not gonna lie, I involuntarily squealed at that scene. But I’m a sappy romantic at heart.

@nojo: You think so? It had been building for nearly four seasons. That payoff made complete sense to me.

Review: “Miss Powers is a USA Today contributor and a Fox News contributor. These are both centrist mass outlets.”

Did this reviewer happen to mention where I can find the right-wing mass outlets if both Fox and USA Today are in the center? For the life of me I can’t think of a single major news outlet to the right of Fox. Can you be in the center of a group when there’s nobody on one side of you?

@Dave H: All that’s right of Fox is WorldNetDaily and Alex Jones.

@nojo: @mellbell: @Mistress Cynica: @SanFranLefty: Haven’t seen a single episode of Sopranos. But that’s what my year in Club Fed will be good for. As for “Mad Men”? I think there were way too many upbeat threads tied – who amongst us didn’t secretely hope that Pete’s Gulfstream would crash? – and too many gratuitous period references crammed in to that epi. Like the coke – not Coke – scene. For two years I’ve felt obligated to watch it, so I’m glad it’s over.

OK, when they scored the Nabisco account maybe I squealed a little.

Great recap of Matthew Weiner discussing the finale and series here.

And the final Mad Style made me weepy — because while I was reading TLo back in the Project Rungay days, they really hit their stride with Mad Style recaps, and I love how even people like Mr. SFL got sucked into reading the recaps every Wednesday and when watching the show he would understand what flowers on Joan’s dress means and the width of a tie has a meaning. He was so proud of himself for catching the connection of plaid with Don and the kids. I can’t wait to see what Janie Bryant and TLo each do next.

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