If a thin-skinned academic sues a magazine for criticizing him too harshly, and you find yourself hoping the magazine will get sued into bankruptcy because you disagree with its views, you might not want to claim for yourself the honorable word liberal [Damon Linker/The Week, Stephen Carter/Bloomberg, Eugene Volokh on role of libel insurance, earlier here, here, etc.]
2 Comments
Actually that behavior is quintessentially liberal nowadays. The word “liberal” has become the antonym of its own etymon.
This has happened also with “awful” and perhaps “terrible”, but it happened so fast with “liberal”!
I am surprised that there is such a thing as libel insurance. Does anybody have Max Bialistock’s phone number? I have a surefire moneymaking idea.