When the Bar Is This Low, No One Clears It
Sharon McMahon, Antifa, and the MAMDANI Act
Sharon McMahon’s cancellation as a commencement speaker for Utah Valley University has been all over the headlines this week, and I hate that for her. We’ve had Sharon on Pantsuit Politics and been on hers. We think of her as a colleague in this crazy world, and we don’t want vitriol and threats surrounding our colleagues.
“Cancel culture” is in the eye of the beholder in the private sector. There will always be speakers we find offensive, and there will always be people who find us offensive. As Sarah says plainly in the episode, mostly, there’s no winning. I hate that.
But I lose sleep over governmental cancel culture. When officials target people for indictment or deportation or denaturalization because of their ideas, we are in alarming territory, whether we agree with the speech at issue or not. I’m worried about the way the government prosecuted the Prairieland Nine. I’m horrified by Chip Roy’s proposed MAMDANI Act. I have a lot of questions about the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Outside of politics, a conversation about leisure: Derek Thompson recently asked on Substack what leisure time we end up regretting, and Kara asked what self-care we pay for without guilt. We can’t wait to hear how you answer those questions.
If there’s someone in your life who also likes to consider everything from free speech and Antifa to magazines and massages, we’d love for you to text them this episode.
-Beth
Topics Discussed
Sharon McMahon and Utah Valley University
The Antifa Executive Order
The Prairieland Nine prosecution
Chip Roy’s MAMDANI Act
The Southern Poverty Law Center indictment
Cancel culture and the criminalization of speech
Outside of Politics: Leisure - what we regret and what we happily pay for
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Free Speech
Sharon McMahon out as UVU commencement speaker following significant GOP opposition (KSL)
Report of the Yale Committee on Trust in Higher Education (Yale)
Yale Has Come Up With a Surefire Way to Make a Terrible Situation Worse (The New York Times)
‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says (Stanford Report)
We’re All Living in the ‘Mirror World’ Now (The Ezra Klein Show)
Deplatforming and Defamation: Free Speech on Social Media (Pantsuit Politics - February 2021)
“Domestic Terrorism”
Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization (The White House)
Prairieland shooter convicted of attempted murder, others on lesser charges in ‘antifa’ trial (KERA News)
DOJ indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on federal fraud charges (NPR)
Federal Grand Jury Charges Southern Poverty Law Center for Wire Fraud, False Statements, and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering (Department of Justice)
The MAMDANI Act
Roy unveils immigration bill dubbed ‘MAMDANI Act’ (The Hill)
Rep. Roy Introduces MAMDANI Act to Denaturalize and Deport Marxists and Islamic Fundamentalists (Congress)
Leisure
Derek Thompson note on leisure (Substack)
Episode Transcript
Coming soon…
Show Credits
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Pausing to comment on the first segment. I think what I worry about most with Sharon is that this will change who she is able to connect with and ultimately her approach. Her book club has really pushed me outside of my reading comfort zone. Last year, I read ACB’s book which I never would have done otherwise. It wasn’t riveting, but I learned something. This year they are reading Jill Biden’s new book, and I’m honestly not thrilled. I’m curious to see if “the right” will sort of blacklist her and prevent the more conservative authors, interviewees, etc. from working with her. I think it all speaks the complete unwillingness to compromise. I hate it.