The liberal left these days is constantly colliding with, and trying to make its case against, the illiberal left. I’ve been pursuing a strategy of internal critique: illiberalism threatens to thwart the left’s admirable goals.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to appear on a panel with Ilya Shapiro, who had previously been prevented from speaking by an angry mob at Hastings Law School. A similar disruption involving a different speaker had happened at the University of Michigan, so the Federalist Society asked me to join Shapiro’s event as a sort of left wing counterweight.
I decided to use the occasion to explain why I’m happy to be able to debate people like Shapiro, whose views I find repellent, and why people on the left ought to welcome that opportunity. Now Shapiro and I have jointly written a piece for Heterodox Academy about our encounter in Michigan, describing what we each said to the other.
It
is here.