Dr. Naomi Wolf joins Dr. Jennifer Margulis on Facebook Live to talk about fighting censorship and her new book, Outrages. Photo courtesy of Markus Winkler via Unsplash.
Fighting censorship (on any subject) is a fight worth fighting. But especially during these strange upside-down times, we need to speak out against efforts to silence dissent. These days it feels like our civil liberties are being cast aside. Powerful rulers seem to think it’s okay to use our fears to further their political gain and keep us quiet and complaisant.
Now is the perfect time not to be quiet. It’s time to get loud.
Facebook, unfortunately, is part of the problem. They’ve censored The Highwire with Del Bigtree. They’ve deleted Larry Cook’s group of nearly 200,000 followers called Stop Mandatory Vaccination.
But Facebook is also one of my favorite social media platforms and the perfect venue to talk about why censorship has no place in Democracy. So I’m excited to host a Facebook Live event with Dr. Naomi Wolf tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 9.
I’ll be talking to Wolf about her new book, Outrages, Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love. Our interview will focus on fighting censorship.
Outrages explores the history of state-sponsored censorship and violations of personal freedoms through the inspiring, forgotten history of one writer’s refusal to stay silenced.
Naomi Wolf is a feminist, scholar, and change agent. We both share a commitment to the basic right to free speech that’s at risk now, perhaps more than at any time since it was codified in our constitution. As Wolf wrote in a blog, “Free speech is about our right to be noisy, after all!”
Dr. Naomi Wolf, photo by Brian O’Shea.
Fighting censorship in the modern age
Wolf and I are both concerned about today’s cancel culture. Don’t like it? Silence it. Disagree? Cancel it. So what if it’s peer-reviewed science or a well thought out critique. If it goes against the mainstream status quo narrative it’s too “dangerous” for people to hear or read.
Sadly much of our new cancel culture is cloaked in “woke clothing,” as Wolf writes.
It’s a strange twist on an old problem that it is liberal-minded people who are leading the charge of censorship in the technological age, abdicating the left’s foundational commitment to preserving our civil liberties at all costs.
Wolf is one of the few voices holding the political left accountable.
As I’ve written about before, it used to be the religious right that championed censorship, objecting to teaching children sex education and evolution in schools. Censorship has also been the purview of authoritarian governments, like Saudi Arabia, a country that censors access to information and has media restrictions written into their bylaws.
That’s no longer true. We’re now fighting censorship coming from those who identify as liberals or leftists, many of whom also happen to be technocrats who are actually also using their platforms in myriad invasive and privacy scorching ways, mostly to sell us things we don’t need.
To make matters worse, these new censors pretend to be justices of “truth,” “real news,” and accurate information.
Fighting censorship demands action
Those who believe in nannying the American public and censoring honest and open dialogue don’t take time off. They are determined and relentless. And their actions against freedom of speech and freedom of the press are encroaching on America’s hard-won civil liberties. If we’re going to be effective in fighting censorship then we have to fight back.
Naomi Wolf has had an impressive career as a writer, feminist, and defender of civil liberties. I’m excited to meet her online and talk about her new book, her career, and her insights into fighting censorship.
Join us online tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 9 to hear our thoughts and share yours on fighting censorship.
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