On July 3, in front of the faces of the four presidents carved on the sides of Mount Rushmore, Donald Trump broke with the consensual spirit that ordinarily accompanies the celebration of the American National Day. He indeed denounced “A new far-left fascism” which develops in particular, according to him, “In our newsrooms”. “If you don’t speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its injunctions, then you will be censored, banned, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,” assured the President of the United States.
In recent weeks, facts have reinforced Donald Trump’s apocalyptic warning. On June 7, the director of the editorial pages of New York Times, James Bennet, was forced to resign and his deputy, Jim Dao, removed from his post after the publication of a column by Republican Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton. In the latter, the elected official close to Donald Trump pleaded for the militarization of the repression of the demonstrations triggered by the death of an African-American, George Floyd, at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
The choice of this forum had aroused the revolt of part of the drafting of the New York Times. No voice had been raised within the New York institution to publicly defend the freedom to disseminate a text written by a public and influential figure.
One month later, on July 7, the Harper Magazine publishes a column signed by a plethora of renowned academics, authors and journalists, spanning a broad political spectrum, from left-wing linguist Noam Chomski, to more centrist Mark Lilla, and temperate conservative David Brooks, of the New York Times. The names of J. K. Rowling, author of the saga Harry Potter, implicated for comments considered transphobic, and Salman Rushdie, sentenced to death in 1989 by Iran for his writings, also appear there.
The signatories denounce the threat of a “Ideological conformism” perceived as deadly:
“The forces of illiberalism are growing in intensity around the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump. But we must not allow resistance to this current to harden to produce its own dogma or its own form of coercion, which right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion to which we aspire can only be achieved if we speak out against the climate of intolerance on all sides. “
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