Let’s face it. The West has had a crisis on free speech and what has come to be known as ‘cancel culture’ for the better part of a decade now. There has also been a movement to actively support free speech and oppose cancel culture since at least 2015. So, after six years, where are we now? We’ve actually gone backwards! The state of free speech is objectively worse than six years ago, and cancel culture is stronger than ever! I think it’s time to examine where we’re going wrong, and change our strategy accordingly.

So what do you…

Today, I want to respond to a recent article on Arc Digital by Nicholas Grossman, titled ‘What Free Speech v. Social Justice Debates Are Really About’. In that article, Grossman argued that the arguments around free speech and cancel culture we are having right now are about where to draw the line for acceptable speech, rather than about whether there should be free speech itself. He also provided several examples in which society has made a decision over whether certain expressions should be legal, based on the competing principles of free speech vs harm prevention.

I agree that there…

My social and political commentary is all about engaging diverse and interesting ideas, and thinkers promoting such ideas, including academics, activists, commentators, politicians and others alike. However, it is often the case that interesting people often have controversial things to say, some of which could be quite offensive indeed.

While in my commentary I may state some level of support for certain figures and/or their ideas, this support does not necessarily extend to all their other ideas or stances. In this era of rampant misattribution and ‘guilt by association’, I feel like I must clarify what I support and don’t…

Justice and liberty aren’t mutually exclusive. Indeed, free speech is required to lead us to the truth, where justice can be found.

Welcome to the first ever episode of TaraElla In-Depth. In this series, I want to do something a bit different. I want to talk about the really controversial stuff that comes with being a liberal these days, that deserves in-depth exploration.

I’m going to be blunt about why we need to do this. Firstly, many of the social justice causes that were long associated with liberalism have now been hijacked by criticalists, you know, the people practicing…

Today, I want to talk about a disturbing development I am seeing recently: an attempt to paint the cancel culture problem as a Republican talking point, something Republicans and conservatives use to wedge Democrats on. I’ve seen this particular idea being promoted in way too many articles just in the past few weeks. …

Today, I want to talk about the reaction around a recent Politico article, that described in detail Andrew Yang’s appearances on right-leaning podcasts and shows like The Rubin Report and The Ben Shapiro Show back in 2019, during his run for the Presidential primary, as well as some of his supposedly controversial comments. Now, some people on the pro-establishment parts of the so-called Left are using that as evidence that Yang is somehow ‘not progressive’, by which they probably mean ‘right wing’. …

Today, I want to talk about the recent drama over the supposed canceling of Dr. Seuss, and why my reaction, at least my first reaction, was a mixture of worry, concern, and maybe a bit of anger. I mean, the picture they are painting out there is that reactionary conservatives are the ones who are concerned, and liberals who oppose racism are supposed to be happy about this. But somehow, this liberal was anything but happy about the news.

Over the next few days I gradually unpacked my feelings, as I listened to arguments from both sides. Although now I…

Jordan Peterson is back, and he is busy promoting his new book Beyond Order. The book contains 12 more rules for life, and literally complements the previous book, with its cover being black, as opposed to the white cover of the original 12 Rules For Life. Now, Peterson has always been a controversial figure. Among the people I know, some absolutely love him, and some have a much less charitable view of him. …