Translation: "Shit! It might be me next!". Which for someone who is only too happy to whip up a mob on Twitter against whoever it pleases him, is quite the revelation.
Although this is not 'censorship', as the increasingly-unhinged wordsmith would have it. The government isn't stifling Allen. The mob is.
The rights to the book will now return to Allen.It'll be interesting to see what happens next. Will he find another publisher? Will he self-publish?
Hmmm....
The nature of censorship is changing. In pure terms it is the government preventing people from speaking out for fear of prosecution. The mob has now taken on that mantle. So no, in pure terms it isn't, but if you've lost your job and cannot get another because of something you said, if you remain silent for fear of the backlash, the effect is the same.
ReplyDeleteI find him less funny and even less interesting than Ricky Gervais. But I do have some sympathy for a Jew who eventually discovers that his only son was fathered by an Italian gangster. A S Konigsberg has also faced allegations of sexually abusing a 7yr old adopted daughter.
ReplyDeleteI could no more read his crap or sit through a film account of it, than I could spend an afternoon exchanging grammar tips with Jaded and teddy boy. Nevertheless, I do hope they find a final solution for this poor chap.
LR is perfectly correct, but it's not quite "the mob" which in times gone by would have been at least a sizeable proportion of the people. Nowadays "the mob" is an extremely vociferous but numerically insignificant part of the populace. Unfortunately, too many levels of authority appear to be in dread of upsetting this tiny minority and pander cravenly to them.
ReplyDeleteA few more responses along the lines of "Yes dear, now run along and play, and please stop interrupting the grown-ups." would not go amiss.
"The nature of censorship is changing. "
ReplyDeleteWe increasingly live in interesting times...
"...but it's not quite "the mob" which in times gone by would have been at least a sizeable proportion of the people. Nowadays "the mob" is an extremely vociferous but numerically insignificant part of the populace."
Spot on!