Jonathan Farber

Founder, Osprey Studios. Believes in ideas, but only the good ones.

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

The AAUP’s critique of the State of Scholarship report does more to validate the report than anything its authors could have written. A report on politicized scholarship is met with a demand for rescission, not rebuttal. And the chapters’ own letter declares the university’s purpose to be fighting wealth inequality, white supremacy, and climate change. A political mission statement offered as a defense against the charge of (checks notes) having a political mission statement.

[UChicago AAUP @AAUP_UChicago]

Joint statement from Vanderbilt and Wash U AAUP chapters on their universities’ threats to free inquiry

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

AAUP members just can’t help themselves.

“Weakening faculty governance…undermines our ability to effectively address society’s most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change.”

[Clifford Asness @CliffordAsness]

No, you are Bond Villain communists who hate human flourishing. Perhaps you used to be economists.

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

Jawboning happens across party lines, and it’s hard to challenge because the censorship is indirect.

Victims often don’t know the government pressured a platform, and even if they do, it’s hard to prove. The JAWBONE Act would help fix that.

https://t.co/5aBmkG8Uzj

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

More here:

https://t.co/lHrr2bceVQ

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

An important new study commissioned by FIRE has two major findings - AOC and Bernie are ideologically aligned with the median faculty member at a group of 55 leading colleges and universities, and (more importantly) there has been a near-total collapse in ideological diversity among this group.

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

Yes. One must be a completely unblemished moral paragon in order to judge a compulsively lying grifter with a Nazi Holocaust executioner tattoo. Thanks for setting us all straight Ken.

[Stephen Hayes @stephenfhayes]

It's bizarre and inappropriate the that president of the United States is taking calls from multiple journalists in the middle of ongoing strikes - thinking out loud about US/allied diplomatic and military responses, and telling reporters what he's going to tell allies before he tells those allies.

No criticism of the reporters -- they're doing their jobs. But insane that POTUS receives -- and often answers --a wave of calls from journalists as events unfold in the middle of his wartime decisionmaking (and, yes, it's a war).

And it's even more disturbing coming as it does from a leader featured in a morning broadcast interview that demonstrates in such striking fashion how detached he is from day-to-day reality.

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

I know it seems crazy but hear me out.

Maybe the guy with a literal nazi Holocaust executioner tattoo is antisemitic?

[Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine]

John Fetterman seems to genuinely think that the reason no one likes him is because he refuses to wear a suit.

It's not the hoodie, dude. It's because you've become a stooge for AIPAC and the Republican party.

[Dan Crenshaw @DanCrenshawTX]

82 years ago today – 73,000 young Americans stormed into hell and risked everything.

They were willing to sacrifice everything because they knew their children and grandchildren could never thrive, could never be free, in a world where the Nazi party was the unrivaled superpower.

This was the day that America chose to lead the world. It was the day that good men chose to fight evil, never surrender.

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

@JohnDSailer Thanks much for posting this John. Fascinating and somewhat encouraging.

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

@nathanTbernard Apparently being a free speech advocate doesn’t mean you actually understand speech, because you have completely misrepresented the plain meaning of the quote you included.

[Jonathan Farber @jcfarber]

@glukianoff @baseballcrank I know it may sound strange but being a principled conservative now means you must pretend cancel culture didn’t and doesn’t exist, and it’s cool (mandatory, even) to endorse a socialist with a Nazi Holocaust executioner tattoo.

[Stephen Hayes @stephenfhayes]

Yeah, take it from a 1980s-born political hatchetman and ex-UFC comms director, Mike Pompeo (top of his class at West Point, Harvard Law grad, House Intel, ex-CIA director, ex-SecState) is clueless about Iran.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

💯

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

Larry Bushart spent 37 days in jail for posting a meme on Facebook.

I’ve been doing this work for 25 years, and I can honestly say this is the worst First Amendment case I’ve ever seen.

Not because Larry threatened anyone. He didn’t. Not because he committed violence. He didn’t. Not because this was a close call. It wasn’t.

He posted a political meme — the kind of thing millions of Americans do every day — and local officials decided to treat it like a crime.

And because they had badges, prosecutors, jail cells, and the terrifying machinery of the state behind them, they got away with it for 37 days.

Larry is a retired police officer and National Guard veteran. The meme he shared quoted Donald Trump’s “we have to get over it” comment after a 2024 Iowa school shooting. Whatever you think of Trump, the meme was plainly political commentary. Perry County officials knew what it referred to. They knew it wasn’t a threat against a Tennessee school.

They arrested him anyway.

In the middle of the night.

They set his bond at $2 million.

He lost his job. He missed family milestones. He sat in jail for more than a month before the charges finally collapsed — because, of course, there was no crime here.

Today, @theFIREorg secured a measure of justice: Perry County agreed to pay Larry Bushart $835,000 for violating his constitutional rights.

This case should scare the hell out of people across the political spectrum.

Because if the government can jail you for a meme by pretending not to understand obvious political commentary, your rights are only as secure as the good faith of the most authoritarian official in your town.

That is exactly why we have the First Amendment. Not for speech everyone likes. Not for opinions that flatter the powerful. Not for the bland, safe, committee-approved stuff.

It exists for moments when fear, outrage, politics, and authority all line up and say: “Surely this is the exception.”

No. It isn’t.

I’m incredibly proud of @theFIREorg’s legal team. And I’m even prouder of Larry Bushart for refusing to let the government get away with treating his constitutional rights like a suggestion.

But despite the correct verdict, I'll probably always get angry every time I think of this case.

Let’s make this the last time anyone in America is arrested — let alone thrown in jail — for a meme.

Celebrate your independence. Defend your First Amendment.

https://t.co/7ADQTxeHsL

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

The Trump slush fund is a clear cut impeachable offense. https://t.co/nUveUBkApa

[Conor Friedersdorf @conor64]

Yes, @Jesse_Leg, the farce of Trumpism is far more flawed, empty, and thoroughly discredited.

[Conor Friedersdorf @conor64]

@Jesse_Leg If you construe "Never Trump conservatism" to include Zohran Mamdani no one is going to take your argument seriously.

[Benjamin Ryan @benryanwriter]

NYU professor @JonHaidt, who has stood at the forefront of the movement to challenge academia’s culture of suppressing the free exchange of ideas, is facing a campaign to cancel his graduation address. https://t.co/4egRWmkpP7