Monthly Archives: February 2023

Dennis Baron YOU CAN’T ALWAYS SAY WHAT YOU WANT: The Paradox of Free Speech

Dennis Baron is Professor Emeritus of English and Linguistics at The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the technologies of communication; language legislation and linguistic rights; language reform; gender issues in language and more.

Among his earlier books are Grammar and Gender; A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers and the Digital Revolution; and What’s Your Pronoun: Beyond He and She.

His latest book, YOU CAN’T AWAYS SAY WHAT YOU WANT: THE PARADOX OF FREE SPEECH, is published by Cambridge University Press. We spoke with him via Skype on February 21, 2023.

Thanks to Roy Zimmerman for permission to share his music.

“The Sing-Along Second Amendment” by Roy Zimmerman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuNEq7gHqF8

In the Gun Law Fights of 2023, a Need for Experts on the Weapons of 1791 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/us/gun-law-1791-supreme-court.html

Two Different Versions of ‘Cancel Culture’ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/opinion/lab-leak-dilbert-cancel-culture.html

This Supreme Court Case Could Decide The Future Of The Internet As We Know It https://www.huffpost.com/entry/section-230-supreme-court_n_63e3ba9ce4b0c8e3fc88d2dd

4 reasons Big Tech is worried about the Supreme Court this week https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/20/big-tech-supreme-court-00083543

It’s Time to Tear Up Big Tech’s Get-Out-of-Free Card https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/opinion/facebook-section-230-supreme-court.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Guest%20Essays

The Supreme Court’s Big Internet Cases Are Scrambling The Partisan Divide https://www.huffpost.com/entry/section-230-supreme-court-gonzalez-google-partisan-amicus-brief_n_63efbd79e4b022eb3e368382

When Do Creepy Facebook Messages Cross a Constitutional Line? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/politics/supreme-court-facebook-stalking-colorado.html

Who’s Afraid of Black History? Henry Louis Gates, Jr. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/opinion/desantis-florida-african-american-studies-black-history.html

Republicans take aim at risque jokes and romance novels with anti-sex bills https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/republican-anti-sex-legislation-state-level

Oregon overturns ‘second amendment sanctuary’ law in blow to gun movement https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/16/oregon-second-amendment-sanctuary-decision

American English Needs Immigrants https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/opinion/english-immigrants-language.html

In Wisconsin’s supreme court race, a super-rich beer family calls the shots https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/21/wisconsin-supreme-court-primary-election-uihlein-family-campaign-finance

US supreme court lets Arkansas law penalising Israel boycotts stand https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/feb/21/us-supreme-court-arkansas-anti-boycott-israel-law

Top state officials push to make spread of US election misinformation illegal https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/23/us-spreading-election-misinformation-illegal

Henry Giroux INSURRECTIONS: Education in an Age of Counter-Revolutionary Politics

Henry Giroux, author, journalist and public intellectual, is the internationally acclaimed Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy and Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest at McMaster University.

He has written more than 56 books since his first book, Ideology, Culture and the Process of Schooling was published in 1981. He has been generous with us over the years with his time, insights and analysis, as he published books such as Zombie Politics in the Age of Casino Capitalism; Disposable Youth: Racialized Memories, and the Culture of Cruelty; The Violence of Organized Forgetting: Thinking Beyond America’s Disimagination Machine; Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of Spectacle; America at War with Itself; American Nightmare: The Challenge of US Authoritarianism; and The Terror of the Unforeseen.

His latest book is INSURRECTIONS: EDUCATION IN AN AGE OF COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS, just published by Bloomsbury Press. We spoke with him via Skype on February 8, 2023 about the multiple crises with which we are faced.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Historical amnesia in the age of capitalist apocalypse – and how to overcome it https://www.salon.com/2023/03/05/historical-amnesia-in-the-age-of-capitalist-apocalypse–and-how-to-overcome-it/?link_id=8&can_id=26389c9ba4e6ef1db60b08fdce8085f1&source=email-timid-media-and-gop-figures-are-again-dangerously-normalizing-trump&email_referrer=email_1838115&email_subject=does-american-fascism-exist

DeSantis’s Educational Policies Come Right Out of Fascist Playbook https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/03/03/275733/

Insurrections (Introduction to the book) https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/insurrections

What is behind Ron DeSantis’s Stop-Woke Act? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/06/what-is-behind-ron-desantis-stop-woke-act

Ron DeSantis’ academic restrictions show he hopes to change history by censoring it https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/09/ron-desantis-florida-education-censorship

Koch brothers’ advocacy group courts far-right Republicans it vowed to thwart https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/11/koch-brothers-afp-action-advocacy-far-right-republicans

Bad Faith Liberalism and the Politics of False Equivalency. https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/01/27/bad-faith-liberalism-and-the-politics-of-false-equivalency/

Fascist politics, the return of antisemitism and the “disconnected present” https://www.salon.com/2022/12/18/fascist-politics-the-return-of-antisemitism-and-the-disconnected-present/

Neoliberal Fascism, Violence, and the Politics of Disposability https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/16/neoliberal-fascism-cruel-violence-and-the-politics-of-disposability/

Ron DeSantis Is a Case Study in the Threat of Fascism in the US https://truthout.org/articles/ron-desantis-is-a-case-study-in-the-threat-of-fascism-in-the-us/

The 2022 Midterms Are a Referendum on the Future of Democracy in the US https://truthout.org/articles/the-2022-midterms-are-a-referendum-on-the-future-of-democracy-in-the-us/

Educators and Critical Pedagogy: an Antidote to Authoritarianism https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/educators-and-critical-pedagogy-an-antidote-to-authoritarianism

The Nazification of American Society and the Scourge of Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/14/the-nazification-of-american-society-and-the-scourge-of-violence/

We Need a New Language of Resistance Amid Far Right’s Calls for Civil War https://truthout.org/articles/we-need-a-new-language-of-resistance-amid-far-rights-calls-for-civil-war/

The Scourge of Fascist Politics and the Rise of White Nationalism from Orbán to DeSantis https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/26/the-scourge-of-fascist-politics-and-the-rise-of-white-nationalism-from-orban-to-desantis/

The Nazification of American Education https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/22/the-nazification-of-american-education/

Targeting the Children: Killing Field in the Age of Mass Shootings https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/05/31/targeting-children-killing-fields-in-the-age-of-mass-shootings/

In an Age of Fascist Counterrevolution, Our Biggest Problem May Be the Death of Ethics ttps://www.salon.com/2022/02/13/in-an-age-of-fascist-counterrevolution-our-biggest-problem-may-be-the-of-ethics/

Teach US students about Holocaust, experts say, amid rise in antisemitism https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/08/us-education-holocaust-antisemitism

Oklahoma teacher is still fighting book bans, now from Brooklyn https://pen.org/oklahoma-teacher-summer-boismier/

Conservatives angry about school ‘indoctrination’ are telling on themselves https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/04/conservatives-ron-desantis-florida-education

The Chief Justice of the U.S. Wasn’t Always Like John Roberts https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/chief-justice-abe-fortas-story-ethics.html

Let’s talk about science in Montana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSpH2N7VGws

Outrageous’: Florida teacher rips DeSantis’ censorship, criminal threats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLw85X919hw