Fired Atlantic Writer Williamson Slams the ‘Rage-Fueled Tribalism of Social Media’ in New Op-ed
Conservative writer Kevin Williamson is telling his side of the story after being fired from The Atlantic due to social media outrage over his extreme past remarks on abortion.
In a new op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Williamson said he warned editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg that there would be an instantaneous push to have him kicked out. Indeed, when Williamson was hired, his critics were quick to dig up the times when he suggested that women who have abortions ought to be hanged.
Williamson acknowledged he was “trollish and hostile” with his comments, but he said he was trying to make a point about the rhetoric surrounding abortion. As he lamented the lack of diverse opinions allowed into debates on the topic, he also claimed that Goldberg clearly underestimated how strong the backlash to his hiring would be.
“If you want to know who actually has the power in our society and who is actually marginalized, ask which ideas get you sponsorships from Google and Pepsi and which get you fired.”
From there, Williamson slammed critics for misrepresenting, falsifying and focusing on his most provocative written works without reaching out to him for comment or questions. He concluded that the “rage-fueled tribalism of social media” has unfortunately become a substitute for public discourse, which is also bringing journalism down as a whole.
“It is easy to misrepresent and exaggerate views that are controversial to begin with,” Williamson wrote. “While the claims against me during the course of the Atlantic fiasco were not created ex nihilo, the distortions and exaggerations represent a similar kind of intellectual dishonesty: indifference to the facts of the case in the service of narrow ideological goals.”
Williamson tried to appeal to Goldberg by invoking Christopher Hitchens — the late Atlantic contributor who, among other controversial statements, once said that the death toll for the war in Afghanistan was “not nearly high enough.”
“Yes,” Goldberg said, according to Williamson. “But Hitchens was in the family. You are not.”
[Image via screengrab]
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