Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower
My instincts are actually similar to yours. I finally read the Harper’s Letter, and it seemed to be an innocuous if long-winded version of a somewhat naive and obvious statement: Listen to others and don’t be unkind. I feel like it could probably be boiled down to a hashtag. But, as is the case with hashtag platitudes, the nuances get lost. And when I read about someone like Weiss, who has been a bully herself, complaining about being bullied, I begin to wonder if the Harper’s Letter is, at least for some of the signatories, just another way of saying, “Don’t criticize ME.” And when I find out that this self-described provocateur has supposedly been intellectually bullied her whole life, I begin to wonder if maybe she is one of those people who loves doing the provoking, but is too thin-skinned to take it when people actually get provoked. And, because she has engaged in the same sort of low conduct she accuses others of, which you concede, it makes me question her credibility and her motives when she calls for an end to bullying. So when you point to her self-serving martyr letter of resignation as proof of illiberal Twitter fascists snuffing out free speech and murdering the soul of the NYT, I’m telling you I don’t buy it.
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All of that is a very fair criticism. She is flawed and if GGG is correct, she may have been merely marketing.
By including her here, I’ve drawn attention away from the Harper’s Letter.
All I sought with reference to the Harper’s Letter was the recognition that you’ve honorably chosen to provide: It’s naive, maybe pedantic, but it stands for a proposition that allows for sensible discussion of issues and ideas. I’d add that without the ideal set forth in Harper’s, much innovation, and a huge number of creative projects, would never have advanced.
Can we all agree the sentiment of the letter is one to which any advanced society ought to aspire?
