The new world war on free speech

For UnHerd, FAIR Advisor Michael Shellenberger writes about the war on free speech.

Even if this were not the case, free speech has never been a gift that can be secured by one person. Rather, for it to survive, it is up to the citizens of the world to insist that governments stop demanding, directly or indirectly through the NGOs they fund, that social media platforms censor disfavoured views. And to the extent that content moderation by social media companies is inevitable, they must be transparent about what content they are restricting, how they are restricting it, and why.

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Universities Shouldn’t Be Ideological Churches

For The Atlantic, FAIR Advisor Robert P. George writes about why he believes universities should not weigh in on politics.

Institutional neutrality protects the university’s fundamental mission of pursuing, preserving, and transmitting knowledge. This mission requires not only academic freedom and viewpoint diversity, but also principles and policies that enable us to avoid contests among people of competing ideological stripes for control of the university and its individual units. The university must belong to everyone in our community, not simply those who are on the allegedly “right” side of contested issues.

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Reparations Should Be an End, Not a Beginning

For The New York Times, FAIR Advisor John McWhorter writes about his thoughts on reparations.

Brilliant work by Black intellectuals such as Barbara Fields and Adolph and Touré Reed has long argued that fixing today’s America will require a focus on class rather than race. After reparations, it would be time to stop sidelining this work. Racism and inequity would not disappear. Policies that address those issues and help Black people succeed would of course continue, but they would focus less on race than on specific economic needs, such as fostering jobs that don’t require a college degree, giving preferences in admissions and hiring based on socioeconomics, rethinking the War on Drugs and teaching reading via the phonics method that science has demonstrated to be the strongest tool.
In a scenario such as this one, reparations would serve not only as a compensation for past injustice but also as the start of a new, class-based orientation toward the nation’s progress on race. Is such a compromise possible, as opposed to a continuation of the mantra that “America doesn’t want to talk about race”? I have my doubts. But I would be happy to be proved wrong.

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For DEI Supporters, Perpetuation of Racism Is Good Business

For National Review, FAIR Advisor Erec Smith writes about why he believes the apparent goal of contemporary anti-racism activism is not to end racism, but to perpetuate it.

Today, this question occupies my mind even more. Seemingly permanent organizations and protocols are being created that strongly suggest racism is here to stay. This seems inconsistent with the traditional discourse about civil rights, which has focused on ending racial discrimination once and for all. The apparent telos (or ultimate goal) of contemporary anti-racism activism — which is not the activism of the civil-rights era — is not to end racism, but to perpetuate it.
Why would I say this? If an activist group has no intention of ever being obsolete — i.e., if it doesn’t have a sacrificial telos according to which it conceives of its own end — it is not an activist group. It is, at best, a special-interest group, and a dishonest one at that.

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How US billing rules make detransitioning a Hotel California nightmare

For the New York Post, FAIR in Medicine Director Carrie Mendoza and FAIR in Medicine Fellow Aida Cerundolo write about how the absence of billing codes for gender detransition can make it difficult for patients to receive treatment when reverting to their biological gender and how this should be remedied.

But despite an emerging number of people regretting their gender transition, there are no medical-billing codes reflecting management of patients who have checked out of gender-affirming treatments or any codes specific to detransition care.
The absence of billing codes for gender detransition can make it difficult for patients to receive treatment when reverting to their biological gender.
Health-care professionals have no standardized way to describe and communicate about the condition or submit claims specific to these visits.
Many may not even recognize detransition exists.
This leaves a cohort of patients with potentially unreliable and inconsistent care.

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Much Of America’s Political Divide Is An Illusion

For Persuasion, Michael Baharaeen writes about how reducing fear between America’s tribal factions is the first step to alleviating the destructive effects of polarization.

Americans are well aware of—and concerned about—the severity of the nation’s divides. Some have opened themselves to the idea of a “national divorce,” in which Americans would sort into red states and blue states and live apart. A not-insignificant contingent even fears the prospect of a second civil war. Large majorities also believe the country is destined to become more divided in the years ahead.
Amid this never-ending doom spiral of division, many of us have become convinced that we have nothing in common with those in the opposing tribe, especially on the toughest moral issues of the day. And when we just know the other side is so extreme and hateful—that the most pugnacious and provocative voices among them must be representative of them all—how is it possible to ever compromise with them or even listen to them with an open mind?
Here’s where I can report some hopeful news: Americans are actually more moderate, more heterodox, and less easily sorted along partisan lines than the media might have us believe.

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