Whenever something bad happens, people talk about passing a raft of new laws to stop it when the problem is law enforcement actively ignores the laws we already have to address these problems, especially when the perpetrators are white and/or rich.

The problem is not a lack of laws, it's a lack of enforcement.
"More laws!" is a way of looking like they're doing something instead of addressing the elephant in the room, which is that more and more restrictive laws will only end up being weaponized against Black, poor, and other marginalized people.
Because white men, especially those with money and political power, will continue getting a slap on the wrist even when committing crimes that would get someone else a lifetime in prison or shot dead in the street.
Black activists have been pointing this out for years. The impetus behind "defund" was the recognition that white supremacy is baked into to the entire justice system and cannot be fixed without ripping it up by the roots.
Similarly, sex workers have been telling everyone that these new "anti-trafficking" laws don't help anyone. They just deprive them of income while pushing them offline and into more dangerous spaces. Even cops have admitted it has made combatting real trafficking harder.
After 9/11, we created a massive security and surveillance apparatus to cover up the fact the Bush administration simply ignored intelligence warnings, and it was largely ineffectual anyway. All while ignoring the persistent and growing threat of white domestic terrorism.
And what a surprise, the post-9/11 security state and the militarization of law enforcement ended up being weaponized against immigrants and Black people.
Lo and behold, the post-9/11 security state was utterly incapable of responding to the attack on the Capitol even though the FBI and multiple other agencies were aware of the gravity of the threat. But it was ignored and enabled because the attackers were white conservatives.
So slapping on new laws and bureaucracies rarely solves anything and often makes things worse if the underlying and systemic issues are not addressed first.

That's the hard part. That's what everyone wants to avoid.

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Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

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1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.