(no subject)

[seekingferret]

An NYC community venue I've gone to a number of times for the New York Review of Science Fiction book reading series, the Brooklyn Commons, hosted a 9/11 Truther for a lecture last night. That's bad enough- Trutherism is completely untethered from truth and spreading lies about an event as personally painful as 9/11 is pretty morally awful in my book. But the particular Truther they hosted is of the sort who blames a Zionist Jewish conspiracy for causing 9/11. And who may also dabble in a little Holocaust denial on the side. When confronted about this, the Commons doubled down, issuing a letter defending their decision on the grounds that they don't vet speakers, and arguing that giving a space to racists is important because it teaches people the valuable lesson that racists exist- all the while continuing to claim the Commons was a 'progressive' space.

I was planning to go to a NYRSF event there tonight, with an awesome guest list including Keith DeCandido, Steven Barnes, and Emily Perrin-Asher to talk about Star Trek on the 50th anniversary of the first episode airing. I'm torn, but I've decided not to go. On the one hand, the organization that runs the NYRSF readings is not anti-semitic, not at all affiliated with the Truthers, and has condemned Brooklyn Commons for hosting this speaker. And I've been going to NYRSF events for more than a decade, they were one of my first entrypoints into organized SF fandom and I don't want that to be ruined because of decisions made by people they don't have direct control of. On the other hand, they rent the space from the Brooklyn Commons and so my money if I attended would be going ultimately to the group that has condoned and welcomed this vile anti-semite, given him this platform within my own community.

A friend of mine organized a protest at the venue last night. I wish I could have joined, but I already had plans- the whole situation came up suddenly. And the whole situation makes me sick. It's bad enough to combat anti-semitism in the general world, but when it creeps into your own communities, that's a whole additional level of difficult.

Tonight, freeradical42 and I are just going to watch Star Trek TOS episodes on our own instead.

Comments

[lokifan]

Yeah, agreed. I can imagine getting into this situation (well, sort of. I wouldn't want to host a conspiracy theory thing personally but it wouldn't necessarily seem super-harmful) and not wanting to cancel or whatever but ARGH. The doubling-down sucks, as does the idea that not giving a rabid anti-Semite your platform is the same thing as censoring them.

[seekingferret]

Yeah. Well, I'm growing more opposed over time to 'no-platforming' when it's done by people who are white-knighting. I think it's a worrying trend that more and more we're seeing people with no connection to an institution protesting when that institution gives a venue to a controversial speaker. That's a censorious trend that I think bears monitoring, especially as it seems to be more and more used by leftists against conservative speakers whose messages I don't really think should be beyond the pale. But when people in a community, people who are regular participants at the venue, speak up and say "This is not a voice we want in our community," then I think that framing it as a free speech/censorship issue is completely wrongheaded, and it's a sleight of hand designed to deny safety and freedom of expression to parts of the community who want to self-regulate.