James Flynn's Book Defending Free Speech Has Been Pulled

https://quillette.com/2019/09/24/my-book-defending-free-speech-has-been-banned/

by jseliger • 7 years ago

43 30 7 years ago

ceejayoz5• 7 years ago

Alternative framing: "James Flynn's publisher exercises their rights to freedom of association". Other publishers, as well as self-publishing, presumably remain an option.

darawk4• 7 years ago

It's not quite as simple as that, though. Ordinarily a publisher like this is politically neutral. They are choosing not to publish this book because they face legal liability, not because they personally disagree with what he has to say. They in fact acknowledge the legitimacy of what he's written, and are choosing not to publish it out of fear.

ceejayoz5• 7 years ago

I'd argue my rights to not associate with people who'll get me dragged into a lawsuit are at least as important as my rights to free speech.

linguistbreaker• 7 years ago

Why does he need a publisher?

manfredo2• 7 years ago

There are two main causes of concern for Emerald. Firstly, the work could be seen to incite racial hatred and stir up religious hatred under United Kingdom law. Clearly you have no intention of promoting racism but intent can be irrelevant. For example, one test is merely whether it is “likely” that racial hatred could be stirred up as a result of the work. This is a particular difficulty given modern means of digital media expression. The potential for circulation of the more controversial passages of the manuscript online, without the wider intellectual context of the work as a whole and to a very broad audience—in a manner beyond our control—represents a material legal risk for Emerald.

This is very chilling to me. If someone quotes the original material out of context and uses that deceptively quoted excerpt to stir up racial or religious hatred then the original publisher is liable. Pretty much anything even remotely controversial could fall foul of this law.

DanBC2• 7 years ago

Pretty much anything even remotely controversial could fall foul of this law.

That's not how English law works though.

Please can you link to the section of English law being talked about? Or any cases on Bailii or judiciary.gov for offences under this law? The author has article 10 rights to freedom of expression if he thinks he's being censored.

I think if people read the actual law, or previous cases, they're normally somewhat reassured.

manfredo2• 7 years ago

This quote is the publisher's reply to Flynn.

Eleopteryx• 7 years ago

It seems like the reason why the publisher dropped the book is to cover their ass in terms of legal repercussions. This actually presents a compelling question: "does Britain have free speech?" if you can get zapped for being racist or being perceived as racist in a book. The author asks this outright... but from there really just segues into telling how great and not-racist the book really is if-you-only-knew.

The aforementioned question is the only point I should really care about. If a book is harmful to a publisher's brand because of social/PR/profit ramifications, then it makes sense for them to drop it. That's not a free speech issue. If the barrier to publishing the book is legal, that's worth discussing. But beating me over the head with "but my books's not even racist tho!" isn't really getting to the core of the issue at hand.

Donald• 7 years ago

That is essentially the author's point, though. Society has endorsed powerful private institutions (specifically in his book, universities) that have moved away from the Enlightenment-era's notion of radically protecting freedom of expression. Instead, this freedom has been relegated to mere legal protection and the spectrum of speech protected and amplified by private organizations has significantly narrowed.

cmsj• 7 years ago

No country has an absolute, no-holds-barred right to free speech. Every legal jurisdiction has some limits on speech/expression, so arguably a more appropriate question would be "are Britain's limits on speech, reasonable?".

shkkmo3• 7 years ago

The issue isn't the freedom of association of the publisher.

The first issue is the legal framework for assigning risk and liability to the publisher in a way that creates a chilling effect on speech.

The second issue is a culture of outrage that creates a culture of fear and creates a chilling effect that prevents needed discussion from taking place. We need to push back against rather than encourag partisan or ideological boycotts.

deogeo• 7 years ago

If a book is harmful to a publisher's brand because of social/PR/profit ramifications, then it makes sense for them to drop it. That's not a free speech issue.

Depends. If you limit free speech considerations to only the law, then no. But if you expand it to which ideas are not allowed to spread, regardless of how they are suppressed, then it is. For example, being fired after making a comic the sponsors of a newspaper don't like [1]. Then there was the totally "voluntary" Comics Code Authority, without whose permission it was at one time impossible to sell comics in the US. The Motion Picture Production Code [3] was similar. To call that "not a free speech issue" is to view free speech very narrowly.

[1] https://www.kcci.com/article/long-time-iowa-farm-cartoonist-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code

tbihl• 7 years ago

"does Britain have free speech?" if you can get zapped for being racist or being perceived as racist in a book.

To quote directly from the publisher in the linked article, the test, far less than being perceived as racist, is "...merely whether it is “likely” that racial hatred could be stirred up as a result of the work." In other words, if racists find you inspiring, that means your previous act has been rendered illegal. In only the most pedantic sense could you say that anyone subject to such a rule "has free speech."

It is also explicit from the publisher's very words that this is based on legal concerns, not business sense. "The potential for circulation of the more controversial passages...represents a material legal risk for Emerald."

I've had some discussions with my co-workers over recent news of a Kansas soldier being arrested for 'distributing information related to explosives'[1] regarding the free speech implications. I work in a notoriously conservative company, but I was still surprised to hear people so supportive of that being a crime. It strikes me as odd that we should legally forbid that considering how much openness there is for scope creep. Where is the dividing line between propellant and explosive? What is the dividing line between materials research and discussing fragmentation weapons? Admittedly I'm quite irritated because my engineering job requires work that is clearly made illegal by this chilling rule.

[1] https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article235387277...

cannonedhamster3• 7 years ago

What purpose does distributing information on explosives provide other than creating knowledge of how to create explosives something which most people don't have an actual need to know how to do, regardless of how trivially way it is to do. Someone the next town over destroyed an entire condo complex killing himself making improvised explosives.

I agree, myself knowing how simple it is to make IEDs from home devices (I was in the military and defusing IEDs, mines, etc was part of my MOS), that the line between explosives and propellent is tenuously thin if at all present. The issue is the intent of dissemination of the information. What possible reason other than making devices that could put people at risk provide to the public? He was intentionally putting out information to attempt to cause harm to other individuals and the right to life is primary before the right to liberty in the Constitution. A bomb is not a self defense tool like a firearm. It's not useful for controlled demolitions. It's sole purpose is to cause fear and harm to others. That's why it doesn't fall under protected speech.

duxup• 7 years ago

The challenging manner in which you handle these topics as author, particularly at the beginning of the work, whilst no doubt editorially powerful, increase the sensitivity and the risk of reaction and legal challenge.

Do we have any information what that means exactly / what that content is exactly?

That seems to be the real key here.

mattchew2• 7 years ago

It's very upsetting how quickly the West is abandoning the ideal of free speech.

20 years ago I would not have believed it was possible that we would have a significant fraction of educated people who were opposed to free speech. But here we are, where a book defending the idea of free speech is too dangerous for a publisher to touch.

I noticed this got flagged off the front page for a while. I wonder why. Thank you to the admins for restoring it, at least. (Update: flagged again. Nevermind.)

cannonedhamster3• 7 years ago

Since when have we had free speech in the west? If anything we're more free than ever ever been. Being anti-Christian would get you barred during the founders time, being pro-communism during the cold war got government attention and black listing, not being patriotic enough got you in trouble in WW2, being pro-union used to put your life at risk.

mattchew2• 7 years ago

The ideal of free speech is a Western ideal. It is part of the individualist tradition going back at least to the Enlightenment.

Back when I was in college (early 1990s), respect for free speech was almost universal among educated people. Everyone was at least somewhat aware of the usual arguments for free speech and basically accepted them. Sure, there were people who wanted to ban books or music or video games, but they didn't have much success and they were generally viewed with contempt.

This just isn't true any more. There is a sizable fraction of educated people now who think free speech is bad and dangerous, who want an authority to control what people are allowed to say and to restrict what ideas others are allowed to come in contact with. And they're gaining power and influence.

Yes, you're correct that free speech hasn't always been respected in the West. Sometimes it gets stepped on. What I'm talking about is whether people think it SHOULD be respected. They used to, quite strongly, but less so now. If you favor free speech this should be concerning.

James Flynn's Book Defending Free Speech Has Been Pulled

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