From The Guardian news section:
Open letter to top publisher condemns $2m Amy Coney Barrett book deal
More than 250 literary figures rail against acquisition by Penguin Random House of book by conservative US supreme court justice
Martin Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Thu 27 Oct 2022 02.00 EDTMore than 250 figures from the US literary world have signed an open letter protesting the acquisition by Penguin Random House of a book by the conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett.
The hardline Catholic conservative was Donald Trump’s third appointee, her nomination rushed through by Senate Republicans after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal lion, shortly before the 2020 election.
Barrett’s book deal, reportedly worth $2m, was revealed the following year.
The open letter focuses on Barrett’s most consequential moment on the court, her membership in the 6-3 majority which this June removed the right to abortion.
The signatories say “it is imperative that publishers uphold their dedication to freedom of speech with a duty of care”.
But, they say, “we recognize that harm is done to a democracy not only in the form of censorship, but also in the form of assault on inalienable human rights.
I.e., the inalienable human right is abortion, not freedom of speech.
“As such, we are calling on Penguin Random House to recognise its own history and corporate responsibility commitments by reevaluating its decision to move forward with publishing supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming book.”
I went to look up the famous signatories, but they are almost all back office nobodies: e.g., not Stephen King but Stephanie King, assistant marketing manager; not Zadie Smith but Shardai Smith. And they are overwhelmingly female.
I don’t know if the ladies angry at the woman Justice will win, but an interesting question is why easily replaceable obscurities have so much power in 2022 that this is a trans-Atlantic story.
I have a theory about how MeToo has so extraordinarily empowered obscure marketing ladies to cancel celebrities they’ve decided to hate.
Most women in the office work world cherish memories of a tipsy male executive hitting on them back in 2012 or whenever, which, under the MeToo Current Rules, gives them POWER to ruin the man’s life. It doesn’t matter what the woman did or didn’t do; if she’s currently unsatisfied, the man is at fault.
So, the male Executive Vice Presidents often quickly give in to lowly women workers’ demands to cancel a client or other big shot, just so long as it’s not them getting canceled.
