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Where Is The Line To Be Drawn?
The Chicago Review of Books has made the decision to not review any books produced by Simon & Schuster during 2017. There has been a bit of an outcry … but herein lies a very considered argument for why it is the right thing to do.
Specifically … Simon & Schuster have decided to publish a new book under their umbrella of “innovative ideas of contemporary conservatism” … I wonder how many conservatives will be happy with that association once they have read the book. If they read the book.
In return, The Chicago Review of Books decided that they …
wanted Simon & Schuster to know that broadcasting his rhetoric would have real-world consequences.
So, what is this book you ask? Well, Milo Yiannopoulos is the author - you might recognise his name as being one of the few people who actually got themselves thrown off Twitter for his hate mongering. If you pop over to Twitter and see how much hate there is there, you might get a clue as to how bad he is. Or just consider some of his personal highlights:
- He called Leslie Jones a “black dude” who is “barely literate”.
- He called transgender people “mentally ill” and “retarded”.
- He mocked a transgender student during a speech at her own school.
- He has also called Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon “fat” and “ugly”.
- And as for lesbians - apparently - they only have one place in the world - in porn. - a comment he made on Facebook just this past Saturday which has already garnered 652 likes as of this writing.
Simon & Schuster have assured readers they
do not and never have condoned discrimination or hate speech in any form.
And so, The Chicago Review of Books is asking
how is handing a purveyor of hate speech a $250,000 megaphone not condoning his rhetoric?
and …
we would just rather use those 15 slots on a different publisher that isn’t normalizing hate speech.
Read All About It. And really, you need to. And then ask yourself - should ‘we the people’ also support the stance by refusing to buy any books published by Simon & Schuster?
And again , no - I have not read the book - I just know what kinds of things Milo has written about in the past - and continues with.