Global Headlines Express | 4 Million Indians Became Illegal Immigrants Overnight, and The Guardian Says the Free-Speech Panic Is a Crisis Cooked Up by the Right

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What the Agenda-Setters Are Talking About

The Guardian: The Free-Speech Panic — How the Right Concocted a Crisis

William Davies is a sociologist and political economist. In this column he asks how the right's declared "free-speech crisis" came into being, how ever more permissive university campuses and a lightly policed internet shaped conservative strategy, and how new ways of distributing content sift what we read and spread the panic wider. Excerpts follow.

"Free speech" and "censorship" are worn, familiar topics, but the panic that now surrounds them is new. It arrived with social networks and self-published media that cost next to nothing to run. Conservatives worry that left-wing ideas are squeezing the right out of the room, university campuses above all; they imply that conservative students and scholars are being silenced, and "intolerance" has become a label pinned squarely on the left.

In fact, platforms that give everyone a voice are multiplying, which ought to have dissolved any worry about "vetting" at the root — the worst writer with the most extreme views can still publish an article or start a podcast. On any measure, control over speech has loosened, and that has indeed made public debate angrier, more hostile, and less inviting to join. But that is not "censorship." Claiming that free speech is under threat is usually a way of hiding a different political disappointment and fear.

There has been too much talk lately about the rise of the "snowflake" — the term for people who cannot tolerate dissent and whose feelings bruise easily — and about how "political correctness" threatens Enlightenment thought. The more interesting question is why "free speech" has become the thing conservatives prize most. The panic looks like it is meeting a political need, at a moment when conservatism faces plenty of trouble. Claiming that "a group of people is being silenced" is a deft piece of public relations: it hides the fact that, in a messier and less predictable world, voices that once carried weight have lost their authority. Read that way, defending free speech is a way of going back to the old cultural order.

For many news outlets, selling this panic about lost freedom is also an effective way to fight off media regulation. They draw a line between unfettered freedom and censorship, and make politicians pick a side.

In the West, the insistence that conservatives have become an oppressed minority has gradually reshaped politics and produced some frightening results — the arrival of the far right, the revival of nationalism. It feeds on the fantasy that the left cannot tolerate dissent, and holds that the left's meddling with culture and universal moral values gets in the way of the pursuit of knowledge. Humanitarians are cast as the worst culprits of all, because they turn "truth" into a political question of whose point of view you take.

Behind these heated accusations sits conservatism's own crisis. Voting habits by age point one way: in the 2017 UK general election, among 18-to-19-year-olds, Labour beat the Conservatives 66% to 19%. Conservative numbers and conservative supporters are both falling. While traditional media still ran public discussion, being few was no threat — public opinion hardly mattered, so long as editors and parties went on representing the interests and values of the establishment. In today's more open and less predictable media environment, being a minority means shrinking influence. To claim that "traditional voices are being censored" is to bend reality; the likelier truth is that no one is listening to them anymore.

The author notes a few other trends:

Anyone who says the mainstream media ignored them, that a campus threw them out, or that snowflakes shouted them down becomes unusually eye-catching online — few people convert fame into money as efficiently as these "free-speech warriors";

Some have retooled the very idea of "free speech" and weaponized it to pitch viral content to internet users; in a time of content glut, saying that someone's thinking is too dangerous is an efficient way to attract attention;

Hinting that university students are not tolerant enough dodges the harder question and hands the blame to young people who are carrying the previous generation's economic disappointment. Students' mental health keeps getting worse, and the free-speech panic reinforces the idea that the fault lies with the students rather than with the world they have been dropped into;

The most decisive intervention today's media makes is neither "censorship" nor "silencing" but "curation" — picking out and recommending whichever content is most likely to go viral. The news does not have to be "fake"; it only has to be pulled strategically out of a vast database and packaged and sold as something frightening.

Selling "free speech" right now may paper over the crack in conservatism's shell, but the idea contradicts itself. By every measure, speech is freer than it has ever been, and even the most radical and extreme voices are rarely restrained. The old gatekeepers have lost their power, and no one knows how this ends.

24-Hour News Makers

The 822-page final report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 is out: the mystery is unsolved, and third-party interference is not ruled out.

On July 30, the Malaysian government released its final report on the disappearance of MH370. It confirms that the plane was turned by hand in mid-air rather than flying on autopilot, and that "unlawful interference by a third party" is possible. Families' hopes of pinning down the cause and finding the wreckage are gone.

Lead investigator Kok Soo Chon set out the report's main points:

The turn-back was done by hand rather than by the autopilot, possibly by the pilot or by a third party, motive unknown. "Certain evidence, such as the loss of communication and the manual turn-back, inevitably points to unlawful interference by a third party" — though no terrorists have claimed responsibility;

All four of MH370's emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) failed and sent none of the normal signals that could have helped locate the plane. "If the aircraft entered the water, there could be difficulties in transmission," but the report offers no clearer explanation for the failure;

The radio and voice communications of the pilot and co-pilot show no sign of anxiety or stress; the aircraft was in good condition, with no fault record that could explain its disappearance;

The pilot had no conflicts with family or friends and showed no signs of suicidal intent such as withdrawal, self-deprecation, or heavy drinking; surveillance footage and recordings show no unusual behavior. "We are satisfied with their background, training, and mental health, and we do not believe this was done by the pilot";

A cargo fire aboard the plane was also ruled out;

Of the 27 pieces of debris collected so far, only three are confirmed to be from MH370; the rest very likely came from a Boeing 777. The debris indicates the plane was in normal flight when it hit the water;

Much of the blame falls on air traffic control. Controllers in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City should have been watching the plane closely, but they did not follow the rules, and the plane vanished from radar for 20 minutes before anyone raised the alarm. "Air traffic control failed to keep continuous watch on the radar and failed to activate emergency procedures in time, which delayed the search and rescue operation."

After hearing the report, families said it gave them no complete answer, and some insisted the report was "wrong." "The answers lack depth, and the relevant questions haven't been properly addressed." "They don't seem to have questioned or challenged the questions they were left with in the first place, and there's no new independent investigation under way now. None of the information in the report is new. There's no definitive conclusion, and no one has been held responsible."

On March 8, 2014, MH370, carrying 239 people (153 of them passengers from mainland China), disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Several countries mounted large-scale search-and-rescue operations, but a sweep of 120,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean turned up nothing, and the search stopped in January 2017. This January, Malaysia struck another agreement with the exploration company Ocean Infinity to search the spot scientists consider the most likely crash site, and again found nothing significant. On May 29, Malaysia said that, barring surprises, it would search no further.

What Else Happened in the World

Trump is ready to meet Iranian President Rouhani. "I'll meet with anybody, I believe in meeting," Trump told reporters at the White House. He and Iranian President Rouhani traded insults this month, and relations are tense. An adviser to Rouhani then tweeted in reply that "returning to nuclear negotiations" and "respecting Iran's national rights" would help pave the way for a meeting.

4 million Indians became illegal immigrants overnight. On July 30, an updated draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published, requiring the northern Indian state of Assam to determine which of its 15 million migrants are genuine citizens of the country. The exercise is meant to sort out who was already entered in the NRC before 1951, and who can prove they were residents of the country before March 24, 1971, or are descended from such residents; anyone who cannot produce proof will be treated as an illegal immigrant. 4 million people were immediately classified as illegal immigrants.

Sky News published a poll on Monday showing that 65% of Britons think the government has botched the Brexit negotiations, and half want a vote on the country's future; support for staying in the EU, for leaving without negotiating, and for following the government's plan came to 48%, 27%, and 13%. With eight months left before the formal exit from the EU, Theresa May has failed to pass any economic-cooperation proposal that satisfies both her party and Brussels.

The gunman in the Maryland newsroom shooting pleads not guilty. Facing 23 felony charges, including five counts of first-degree murder, Jarrod Ramos — who shot and killed four journalists and a sales assistant on June 28 — denied everything and pleaded not guilty.

The death toll from Northern California's wildfires is climbing. Police found a sixth victim in a house consumed by the flames, and seven more missing-person cases are under investigation. After devouring 386 square kilometers of land, the fires have destroyed 657 homes and damaged 145 more; another town of 5,000 people, Lakeport, has been evacuated. About 4,500 homes are under threat in total.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan says Pakistan will plant 10 billion trees during his five-year term. This scales up a local tree-planting program run by his party, the PTI. The prime minister said that, facing the threat of climate change, Pakistan should make sure its development fits the climate and its infrastructure can take the shocks.

Someone Said

"And yet, Putin's approval rating has fallen" — honestly, what does that matter in Russia?

Putin's government plans to raise the retirement age, from 60 to 65 for men and from 55 to 63 for women. The point is to bring in more government revenue.

Reuters reported that more than 6,000 people took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to protest, chanting slogans such as "Putin is a thief."

Putin had said he would not raise the retirement age, so when the plan surfaced in June, his approval rating slipped.

One commenter noted that "a drop in approval" probably means nothing in Russia.

"Kaos saved humans, and humans poisoned him."

The magnitude-6.2 earthquake that hit the Italian town of Amatrice in 2016 killed 230 people. Kaos, a one-year-old German shepherd, and his owner, Fabiano Ettore, were among the first to reach the scene and join the rescue; over the following weeks Kaos helped detect signs of life and dig out bodies, and became known as Italy's "hero dog." He went on to work another earthquake rescue in October, and lately had been helping search for missing people.

On Saturday morning Ettore found Kaos poisoned in the garden. "I have no words. I cannot understand such a horrible act… Kaos saved humans, and humans poisoned him."

Poisoning dogs is reportedly not rare in Italy, and police have opened a case.

Something Else You Might Find Interesting

Men are more likely to exaggerate how many sexual partners they've had.

A University of Glasgow survey of the sexual behavior of 15,000 British men and women found that, although in theory the two sexes should report similar numbers of partners, men always like to inflate their figures: among those surveyed, aged 16 to 84, men reported 14 sexual partners on average and women 7. One in every 100 British men claims to have slept with more than 100 women; the highest figure any woman reported was 50.

Researchers put the gap down to a habit of exaggeration common among men, who tend to "estimate" an extreme number rather than actually count. The two sexes also differ in how they view casual sex. Women are markedly more conservative about one-night stands: the share of women who think one-night stands are fine is half the share of men. And 65% of women think sleeping with a married person is absolutely wrong, against only 57% of men.

Guardian columnist Barbara Ellen points out that the double standard applied to the two sexes is part of it: women know very well how harshly society judges a "promiscuous" woman. People still tend to believe that the more bed partners a man has had, the more likely he is a successful alpha lover, and "this trophy-hunting kind of boasting looks more like wanting to impress other men." A man who has frequent one-night stands, she argues, has no time to build a long-term relationship and is probably doing the same thing every time, so he is not necessarily more experienced than anyone else.

On This Day

July 31, 1886: Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt died.

July 31, 1891: Thomas Edison obtained the patent for the motion picture camera.

July 31, 1932: The Nazi Party won more than 38% of the vote in the German general election.

July 31, 1941: On Hitler's instructions, Hermann Göring ordered SS chief Reinhard Heydrich to begin the mass extermination of the Jews.

July 31, 1971: The astronauts of Apollo 15 became the first people to drive a lunar rover.

July 31, 1991: The United States and the Soviet Union reached the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Cover image from Flickr@Morton.