People who spread ideological propaganda are not fit for intelligent adult company

From This is the World in Which We Live by Freddie deBoer.  

Recently the Brookings Institution took time out of their busy schedule pretending pre-K works to present irrefutable proof that Glenn Greenwald and Tucker Carlson are harassers.

Or, well, not really. Instead, they found that after Tucker Carlson or Greenwald “targeted” Taylor Lorenz - which is to say, criticized her - there was a great deal of abuse sent her way. And, you know, I don’t doubt that there’s a lot of that, and I am sorry. It’s an ugly world out there. But the research is a mess, with zero controls - isn’t it very likely than anyone with a large audience calling attention to specific figures increases abuse? - and, I’m sure, very tendentious and unconvincing categorizing. What is “toxicity”? What is an “identity attack”? What is a “full-blown gendered disinformation campaign”? Easy question: those things are whatever the authors want them to be, baby. There is, of course, no such thing as “online violence,” because the online world is disembodied and violence can only occur to bodies. Was there ever any chance whatsoever that these three ideologues doing this research would fail to find the effect they were looking for? How much do you want to bet that a vast portion of what they’re defining as violence is in fact perfectly fair criticism?

Incredibly, the paper does not give the most essential qualifier, which is that Carlson and Greenwald cannot possibly control these online mobs. Nor is there any attempt to articulate how they could criticize Lorenz or others in a way that would not provoke “gender-based online violence.” They go so far to tip the scales that they interview Lorenz but not Carlson or Greenwald. All of this should be damning, but the report played very well, because our media class really doesn’t like Greenwald or Carlson.

The study he links is Gender-based online violence spikes after prominent media attacks by Megan Brown, Zeve Sanderson, and Maria Alejandra Silva Ortega.  deBoer is right.  It is not a study, it is propaganda.  The Brookings used to be a proud institution, now it is reduced to selling past credibility, one ideological scam at a time.  

Harassers, toxicity, hate speech, disinformation and misinformation campaigns, online violence - All are made up excuses with no real world relevance, pretended into being in order to suppress free speech or speech uncomfortable to vested interests.  Anyone using these terms in any other way than ironically is not someone suitable for adult company among smart people.