Weekly Roundup

Reading, watching, & listening list

Free Speech and Readers’ Rights

For FAIR’s Substack, Nicole Sullivan writes about the American Booksellers Association's descent into groupthink and censorship.

It is in the best interest of authors, publishers, and customers to stand up to the kinds of censorship the ABA seeks to normalize. We need to move the needle back to a place that prioritizes art over idealism and the viability of our small businesses over activism. Independent bookstores, unlike our competitors, contribute to the economic vibrancy of our communities. Local authors and small, independent publishers enjoy a symbiotic relationship with indie stores where their books won’t be relegated to back corners or buried by algorithms. Readers are far more likely to discover their new favorite author or their next great read by leisurely perusing our shelves or chatting with passionate and well-read staffers.

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Podcast #276: On Book Banning

Quillette podcast host and FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay speaks with author Ira Wells about the censorship demands emanating from both sides of the political spectrum.

Jonathan Haidt Returns (on the anxiety generation) | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

FAIR Advisor Jonathan Haidt joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why his moral dumbfoundings are such tasty party tricks, if disgust contains wisdom about borders that one shouldn’t cross, and how the overprotectiveness epidemic was borne out of the safest generation yet. Jonathan and Dax talk about the fact that despite public response it’s much more dangerous for kids online than it is in the real world, the cost of gamifiying a child’s education being that their brain becomes desensitized to dopamine release, and that more serious than mental illness issues as a result of excessive screens for kids is actually attention fragmentation.

Pardoned for What? Robert George on DarkHorse

Bret Weinstein speaks with FAIR Advisor Robert P. George on the subject of pardons, the shifting dynamics within the Democratic Party and the rise of Trump, AI, free speech, and reproductive rights.

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Five things to remember as the Mahmoud Khalil case develops

For The Eternally Radical Idea, Greg Lukianoff and Robert Shibley write about the First Amendment rights of a green card holder.

Passion over the underlying issue has also led many to make an argument we often hear when dealing with speech by non-citizens: the idea that non-citizens do not have First Amendment rights, or constitutional rights more generally. That’s simply not true. Foreigners in the U.S. do have some constitutional rights to the same extent as citizens, even if they’re not here legally at all. Most obviously, the government can’t execute or jail a non-citizen without trial, nor can you enslave anyone within the United States, foreigner or not.

Other rights, like the right to vote or to purchase firearms, are denied, in whole or in part, to some or all foreigners. But the First Amendment is among those rights that are not limited only to citizens. As Rubenfeld noted, Bridges v. Wixon plainly states that “Freedom of speech and of press is accorded aliens residing in this country.”

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