Sacked. Turns out that tweet was what hanged him. (The proximate cause was podcast audio reiterating the tweet—but you get the point.) Read Julie Kelly’s piece today anyway—just mentally insert “former Atlantic writer” in front of Williamson’s name.
Erick Erikson tweets: “Kevin Williamson’s firing is a reminder that there are two Americas and one side will stop at nothing to silence the other. This is not about a bad tweet or a bad view. It is about the left wanting a monopoly on the public square so none can be exposed to competing ideas.”
Some people who should know better are just now figuring this out—which is amazing. But . . . better late than never.
Meantime, Ace administers the hard medicine:
Where you been all this time? Do you only get bothered by Social Justice Warrior scalp-hunting when they start coming after members of your tiny, tiny, microscopic class of Liberal Republicans Working for Liberal Republican Magazines Who Would Like One Day to Work at Liberal Democrat Magazines?
Oh that’s right — you and your ilk have been spending these past few years attacking Kurt Schlichter for correctly saying that the left is imposing an intolerable speech code on us through sociocorporate power and that it’s time to impose “New Rules” on them so they feel a similar pain (and are encouraged to de-escalate).
Read it all.
Blast from the past: Publius Decius Mus on the coming silencing:
I believe the Left, as it increasingly feels its oats, will openly discard the pretense that it need face any opposition. It’s already started. This will rise to a crescendo during the 2020 election, which the Left will of course win, after which it will be open-season on remaining “conservative” dissent. Audits. Investigations. Prosecutions. Regulatory dictates. Media leaks. Denunciations from the bully pulpit. SJW witch-hunts. The whole panoply of persecution tools now at their disposal, plus some they’ve yet to deploy or invent.
The only ways out from under that will be to shut up, slink off, and find other things to do—not so easy when one’s entire career has been “senior fellow” and “contributing editor.” Or else keep modifying the message in the hope that the beast will eat you last. That shouldn’t be so hard—Conservatism, Inc.’s been doing it for a couple of decades at least. But it does bring us back to the first problem. The more feckless the “opposition,” the less interest from the donors.
By the way, that was his prediction if Hillary won.
Update: More reaction.