Was the Harper’s “free speech” letter really about defending open debate—or about protecting powerful media elites from criticism and consequences? In this episode, we expose how the Harper’s letter, its transphobic signers, and the larger “cancel culture” panic helped shield figures like J.K. Rowling and Bari Weiss while the real threats to free speech exploded under Trump.

More than 150 journalists, authors, and academics signed the infamous “Harper’s letter” in 2020. Published in Harper’s Magazine amid the George Floyd racial justice protests, the letter argued that the more serious threat to the nation was “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty”—aka “cancel culture.” At the time, trans people were some of the letter’s biggest critics, highlighting its bigoted dog whistles. The letter’s signatories include a who’s who of transphobia, from Bari Weiss to J.K. Rowling.

This week, writer Parker Molloy joins Katelyn and Christine to discuss how this so-called free speech crisis transformed how elite media covers—and protects—itself, from 2020 to today.

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Links:

Follow Parker Molloy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/parkermolloy.com

Subscribe to Parker Molloy’s newsletter, The Present Age: https://www.readtpa.com/

David Klion for The Nation: They All Signed the Harper’s Letter. Where Are They Now?, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/harpers-letter-free-speech-trump/

The Objective: A More Specific Letter on Justice and Open Debate, https://objectivejournalism.org/2020/07/a-more-specific-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

Emily St. James

Zach Beauchamp for Vox: The “free speech debate” isn’t really about free speech, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/22/21325942/free-speech-harpers-letter-bari-weiss-andrew-sullivan

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