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Posts Tagged ‘Alliance Defending Freedom’

British Publishers Self Censor to Maintain Ties with China

Posted by M. C. on March 17, 2022

https://view.parlermailer.com/?qs=6ac6ed4769cb13cd61f93684256ca3aaa0e7d5f63848ec8ad08ea6ceb9474edc75b61ad86dc43ee19267ea73a79507973ca70f9431d5cd727c3beda9dd66ed7c7415cbdd902bacdf70483d6371f4d57d

ancel Culture
British Publishers Self Censor to Maintain Ties with China Photo by Ajay SureshPhoto by Ajay Suresh — Creative CommonsThe Financial Times reported that two British publishing houses are removing content the CCP finds objectionable to allow their books, intended for western distribution, to be printed in China. Octopus Books and Quarto have stripped references to Taiwan and Hong Kong and altered character nationalities, changing Taiwanese to “East Asian.” Mentions of dissident artist Ai Weiwei were also deleted. Changes came after Chinese suppliers said they could not, by law, print the original versions.

Other publishing houses, such as US printing company RR Donnelley & Sons, have faced similar pressures. The company authored a memo highlighting restrictions from its Chinese printers on mentions of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Covid-19 origins.

While some alternate printing locations are employed, price pressures prevent publishing houses from relocating their entire catalog. A spokesperson for Quarto stated the company had “a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of our shareholders.” Octopus Books said changes made “are not material and we always ask the permission of the author first to check they are comfortable to proceed.”
Free Speech
Yale Bipartisan Free Speech Event Disrupted by ProtestersSterling Law Building, YaleSterling Law Building, YaleA panel hosted by the Yale Federalist Society was met with 120 protesters against one of the participants, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The discussion, also featuring the American Humanist Association, was intended to demonstrate that liberals and conservatives could find common ground on free speech issues.

The protesters carried anti-ADF signs and vocally disrupted the event. Kate Stith, a professor at the law school, reminded the crowd that Yale’s policies do not permit protesting that “interferes with speakers’ ability to be heard and of community members to listen.” The students were asked to leave but continued to chant “protect trans kids” and “shame, shame” outside the room. After the event, nearly 2/3rds of the law school students signed a letter supporting the protesters.

Central to the students’ objections was a 2015 brief by the ADF, asserting that EU member states should have the option of requiring medical transition before allowing a legal change of gender. The stance led to the ADF being labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The nonprofit ADF has argued several Supreme Court cases, including Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, establishing religious exemptions from civil rights laws.

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The violent consequences of being branded ‘hateful’ – spiked

Posted by M. C. on September 7, 2019

A gunman attacked a Christian charity after it appeared on an SPLC ‘hate map’.

The SPLC’s main motive is money. Historically the term ‘hate group’ was well understood. It meant groups that engaged in or incited violent actions against certain people. But the SPLC has expanded the definition of ‘hate’ to now include people and groups who merely disagree with the SPLC’s far-left agenda

https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/06/the-violent-consequences-of-being-branded-hateful/

The Southern Poverty Law Center is America’s premier ‘hate watch’ organisation. It is treated by many as an impartial arbiter of extremism. It designates certain organisations as ‘hate groups’ and produces a ‘hate map’ of the US. But the concept of hate – as with hate speech and hate crime – is entirely subjective and elastic. It can be applied to groups that genuinely promote hate and violence, or simply to groups promoting a message that is at odds with progressive orthodoxy. In 2012, Jessica Prol Smith worked for the Family Research Council (FRC), a Christian organisation. She discovered firsthand the potentially violent consequences of being labelled as hateful – and being lumped in with racists and fascists.

Prol Smith currently works for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), another Christian organisation promoting religious liberty. spiked caught up with Prol Smith and her colleague, Jeremy Tedesco, ADF’s vice president of US advocacy, to find out more.

spiked: Can you describe the attack on your offices in 2012?

Jessica Prol Smith: It was 15 August, 2012 – so, seven years ago. It ended up being one of the worst days of my life. I was working as an editor for the Family Research Council. I was just about to go to lunch when we were put on lockdown. A man with a gun entered my office with a plan to kill as many of us as possible. He had brought in a dozen Chick-fil-A sandwiches in his backpack and rounds of ammunition. He later testified that he wanted ‘to smear the chicken sandwiches in victims faces as a statement’.

My co-worker, Leo, managed to interrupt his attempt to shoot the place up. He really saved the day. It was later that we learned from the gunman’s testimony to law enforcement that he had got the idea to target our office by looking at the SPLC’s hate map. The map lumps together mainstream conservative organisations right next to the KKK and other racists. It was appalling and offensive to see the SPLC compare peaceful, Christian organisations like the ones I’ve worked for to the KKK.

spiked: Are the Family Research Council or Alliance Defending Freedom hateful organisations by any stretch?

Prol Smith: The FRC focuses on protecting freedoms of religion, protecting the rights of the unborn and protecting the value of the family. The ADF is one of the nation’s most respected and successful Supreme Court advocates. We’ve won nine cases at the Supreme Court since 2011, and we work so that all Americans can peacefully live out their faith. But the SPLC has decided that they disagree with both organisations on some policy stances and so it slapped a ‘hate’ label on them. It has slandered them, simply because it disagrees with them.

spiked: What motivates the SPLC?

Jeremy Tedesco: The SPLC’s main motive is money. Historically the term ‘hate group’ was well understood. It meant groups that engaged in or incited violent actions against certain people. But the SPLC has expanded the definition of ‘hate’ to now include people and groups who merely disagree with the SPLC’s far-left agenda.

Right now, the SPLC has $500,000,000 unused donor dollars sitting in domestic and off-shore accounts. Even sympathetic voices, like Nathan J Robinson, editor in chief of Current Affairs, has described the SPLC’s hate map as an ‘outright fraud’ and a ‘willful deception designed to scare older liberals into writing checks to the SPLC’. In order to raise more money, they expand the kind of groups that fit into that category of ‘hate group’ to meet their and their donors’ political goals.

spiked: Why are normal political disagreements so often described as hateful?

Tedesco: The left uses that word as a hammer to push people out of society, out of public life. The idea of hate speech is incredibly relevant here. The problem is that it is an inherently vague term, but it’s always used by those in power or those who wield it, to silence or censor or defund people they disagree with…

 

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Profit$ of Hate: The Southern Poverty Law Center SPECIAL ...

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