The vast majority of people who are fired for their beliefs and attitudes are not high-profile writers on twitter, they are minorities who are not well-protected by legislation. The idea that "silencing" is a major concern makes no sense whatsoever in context
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Replying to @GidMK @jeremy_gans
The US only just - in 2020! - made it illegal to fire people for being transgender. But the horrors of a few people being fired unfairly for social media faux pas has prompted such widespread outrage among these powerful writers that they decided to get together and be angry
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Replying to @GidMK @jeremy_gans
And more broadly, the non-Shor examples cited in the letter could quite easily be described not as "chilling silencing" but as "perfectly foreseeable consequences of awful public opinions"
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Replying to @GidMK
Are any of these about 'awful public opinions'?: "books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class"pic.twitter.com/BetMgDIML5
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Replying to @jeremy_gans
Well, to be fair they are such general statements that they could refer to literally anything, but they seem to relate to recent incidents (such as books being withdrawn from publishing due to Rowling's public comments) that are indeed related to such opinions
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Replying to @GidMK
I think again you're missing the context - it's about YA books and diversity/sensitivity: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/books/amelie-wen-zhao-blood-heir-ya-author-pulls-debut-accusations-racism.html …. There was an author sacked for tweeting a Rowling hashtag, but no books withdrawn yet AFAIK, and certainly not over 'inauthenticity': https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/scots-author-sacked-backing-jk-rowling-2904530 …
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Replying to @jeremy_gans
Lol, if that's the situation they're referring to it's even more absurd. As if someone voluntarily withdrawing their book over perceived racist overtones is horrifying silencing of the worst order
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Replying to @GidMK
OK, that's a different debate (where the words 'chilling effect' and 'new authors without a contract' would feature and 'the worst order' wouldn't.) But I take it you agree that that example is nothing to do with either Rowling or 'really awful opinions'?
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Replying to @jeremy_gans
Not Rowling but I'd say racism fits the bill of awful opinions
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Replying to @GidMK
Did you read the NYT article? The perceived racism was an Asian author setting a slavery story in an Asian, rather than an American, setting. How is that an 'awful opinion'?pic.twitter.com/pDNxh8SHkC
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That depends. Do you trust the Black Americans who thought the book was racist, or the author, who didn't?
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