This is a writing blog, not a blog on the China Worldcon, but I’ve been getting a bump in readership from the Worldcon articles, I’ve been talking about intimidation of China critics with vague claims of “racism,” and I just came upon a new outrage. Emerson College is apparently in the pocket of the Chinese government. It derecognized a chapter of Turning Point USA, a student organization. The organization had distributed stickers with the text “China kinda … sus.” That’s gamer slang for “suspicious.”

Emerson president William Gilligan, who seems like a typical academic tinpot dictator, has smeared the Turning Point chapter with a claim of “anti-China hate.” “Hate” is a wonderfully flexible word; in this case, it means criticism of an authoritarian state. If Gilligan is consistent (which I don’t expect he is), then he ought to regard kneeling during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as “anti-America hate.” Or maybe he just likes concentration camps.
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