Episode 128: The Salman Rushdie Attack Holds a Mirror To The West And The Opera Finally Bans Slavery

Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, has spent decades in hiding as radical Muslims have hunted and killed many others involved with the controversial novel. Recently, he reemerged in New York, only to be stabbed near-fatally as he took the stage. But are others wrong to draw parallels between the rhetoric used by his attackers and the rhetoric we see increasingly in the West?

Plus, Substack writer Sam Thielman had his contract unfairly terminated, but Jesse uncovers events in his past that suggest he may not be quite as fair to others. Then, enjoy the chaos as internet insanity bleeds over into the opera scene once again, this time with an abolitionist twist.

Salman Rushdie

The attack on Rushdie

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/15/us/salman-rushdie-attack-monday/index.html

Bari Weiss’s history of the fatwa against him

We Ignored Salman Rushdie's Warning

Jesse’s review of Helen Joyce’s book

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/books/review/trans-helen-joyce.html

The MacLachlan assault

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2017/09/trans-rights-terfs-and-a-bruised-60-year-old-what-happened-at-speakers-corner

The outcome of the case

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5613057/Model-punched-feminist-smashed-120-camera-violent-brawl-walks-free-court.html

The Julie Bindel case

https://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/feminist-speaker-julie-bindel-attacked-transgender-person-edinburgh-university-after-talk-545841

Sam Thielman

Ackerman’s post mildly criticizing Substack (note Thielman credit)

https://foreverwars.ghost.io/forever-wars-off-substack-on-ghost/

Thielman details how Substack punished him for editing the post

https://foreverwars.ghost.io/substack-retaliates-against-forever-wars-editor/

Substack backpedals

Hamish McKenzie @hamishmckenzie

Having reflected on this and spoken to Sam, I do think we fucked up here. It’s on me. We’ve talked to Sam and we’re paying him the full value of the affected contracts. We’re sorry to Sam for overstepping.

Our episode on the Gist controversy

Episode 99: How Slate Became An Embarrassing Basket-Case Shell Of Its Former Self (With Mike Pesca)

Pesca’s suspension

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/business/media/slate-mike-pesca-suspended.html

Thielman isn’t happy how things turned out

CHOAM Nomsky @samthielman

It’s exciting that all the centrist culture war pond scum are relitigating Slate firing Mike Pesca while Tennessee public schools ban books about the Holocaust. Really hard to illustrate any clearer than that how little these freaks care about anyone who’s not in their group chat

Jesse’s response

Jesse Singal @jessesingal

Replies are off but I'm curious whether Sam still feels this way. Substack just unjustly cancelled a couple of his gigs before 180ing. When it was *his* job and *his* ability to support his family on the line, for whatever reason "There's bigger stuff going on" didn't cut it.

CHOAM Nomsky @samthielman

It’s exciting that all the centrist culture war pond scum are relitigating Slate firing Mike Pesca while Tennessee public schools ban books about the Holocaust. Really hard to illustrate any clearer than that how little these freaks care about anyone who’s not in their group chat

Thielman digs himself deeper re: Donald MacNeil Jr.

Jesse Singal @jessesingal

2/ Thielman also wrote that Donald McNeil Jr. "absolutely should have been fired." It's so weird how it turns out every controversial firing in journalism was justified until his. But whatever, these other guys aren't in the group chat.

Sam’s devastating response, a masterpiece of polemics thoroughly discrediting Jesse and dishonoring his descendants for centuries to come

CHOAM Nomsky @samthielman

Hi, Jesse, go fuck yourself

Jesse Singal @jessesingal

Replies are off but I'm curious whether Sam still feels this way. Substack just unjustly cancelled a couple of his gigs before 180ing. When it was *his* job and *his* ability to support his family on the line, for whatever reason "There's bigger stuff going on" didn't cut it. https://t.co/zeJZ5VGN4E

Theater Blowup

Playwrights Ensemble resigns collectively

https://medium.com/@ofvictorygardensplaywrights/letter-from-the-playwrights-of-victory-gardens-theater-fcbd3e1d1840

A list of demands for white american theater, invoking, of all things, the 13th Amendment

https://www.weseeyouwat.com/

The results of the protest outside the theater

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/theater/ken-matt-martin-victory-gardens.html

The internal conflict at Victory Gardens

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/theater/victory-gardens-theater-chicago.html?smtyp=cur

Ken-Matt’s statement

http://www.kenmatt.com/blog/2022/7/18/for-those-doing-the-work

Image: People listen as writers gather to read selected works of British author Salman Rushdie, one week after he was stabbed while on stage, during a rally to show solidarity for free expression outside the New York Public Library in New York City on August 19, 2022. - Hadi Matar has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges after being accused of stabbing British author Salman Rushdie multiple times on stage during a literary event at the Chautauqua Institution. The severely injured author is recovering well according to family and friends, after the assault left him with multiple stab wounds on August 12, 2022. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)