The death and resurrection of a blog (that no one reads): My best guess about what happened

 Look, it was either that, or The Parrot Sketch.  Either way, this post was starting with Monty Python.  How is my plumage?  Lovely.  Thank you for asking.  That was interesting.  Two months ago-- May 3, 2024, to be precise-- I logged into the blog editor for In Tenure Veritas on blogspot-- and I was greeted by a message that the blog had been removed.  The message did not explain precisely why.  I was provided with a link to click for a review and appeal.  I dutifully clicked the link.  Lather, rinse, repeat, over the course of the last two months.  Yesterday, on July 1, 2024, I received an email from the people at Google, who own blogspot, informing me that my blog and account are, in fact, in good standing, I have done nothing wrong, and that my blog has been restored.  Gee, thanks.  After two months, during which time anyone who attempted to view the page or click a link sending a reader to In Tenure Veritas was greeted with an error message, and hence decided that I had just taken a permanent vacation, or something.  I do not have twitter, or facebook, or anything like that, so I was not communicating through any other means.  After all, why engage in the social media cesspool?

I have received messages from readers, messages of confusion, messages of thanks, and in particular, I have been gratified by the messages from many of you who have said that you read in part because you appreciate having your views challenged.  I do not follow anyone's party line, I speak and write the truth as best I can, following the principle of parrhesia, taking the lessons and adapting them from Diogenes of Sinope, and if anyone chooses to listen to my barking, I neither bite nor do those unsavory things in the market.  (Um... gross.)

Yet on May 3, 2024, something happened.

I have two hypotheses.

My first hypothesis is as follows.  I am a Jewish college professor, and my discipline is Political Science.  Prior to October 7, I never commented on Israel, nor the Middle East.  That changed, and while I could explain why, the fact is that it did change.  On May 2-- the day before Google took down In Tenure Veritas-- I wrote a post about a stunt by Ami Horowitz.  Horowitz visited the campus of CUNY, and specifically the encampment of protesters.  He carried an American flag.  They assaulted him, merely because he carried an American flag.  I was disgusted, and my comments demonstrated...  parrhesia.  "Parrhesia" translates, roughly, to freedom of speech.  While I cannot recapture the emotion of two months ago, my moral judgment is rationally derived, and remains unchanged.  My comments, thus, were harshly written, but justly positioned.

Viewing that post again, though, it appears that youtube has removed the Horowitz video, claiming that it violates their terms of service.  Why?  I cannot say.  In all likelihood, the people on the video who assaulted Horowitz found some way to demand that youtube take down the video on some pretense, and youtube complied.  Youtube is owned by Google, as is blogspot.  My post embedded the video, so whoever demanded that youtube take down the video found In Tenure Veritas and made the same demand.  Perhaps the removal of In Tenure Veritas was merely a knock-on effect of youtube taking down the Horowitz video.

Let me be clear.  Ami Horowitz went into the encampment at CUNY and did nothing but display an American flag.  For that, he was physically assaulted.  That is insane.  The fact that the video is gone, and that it appears to have been removed at someone's demand is similarly insane.

Is that actually why In Tenure Veritas was taken down for two months?  I do not know, since no one told me.  However, the fact that I embedded the Horowitz video on May 2, 2024, the blog was taken down the next day, and the Horowitz video was removed by youtube for terms of service all look like a pattern.

The Horowitz video violated no coherent terms of service.  There was no explicit imagery, there was no language disparaging a protected group (e.g. Muslims), there were no calls for violence.  Rather, violence was used against Horowitz.  There was nothing.

Legally, Google has a right to set its own terms of service, but I think they probably violated their terms with Horowitz, and the fact that they restored In Tenure Veritas demonstrates that they knew I was following terms of service.  (Take note, note-takers.)

So, is this what happened?  I have been wondering if I would face blowback for my posts on Israel.  Supporting Israel is not a popular position on a college campus.  Being a Jew is not a popular thing on a college campus.

My own campus's "Students for Justice in Palestine" do not seem to know I exist.  I monitor their social media, and I know whom they target.  I'm not on their target list as of yet, and if they had been responsible, I think I'd be on their social media hit list.  But of course, since practically no one was reading In Tenure Veritas before Google removed it, that meant my own campus's SJP wasn't reading it.  I don't think they did it.  Indeed, so few people were reading this blog that the only ones who read it were the few who sought out my heterodox thoughts and...

Hypothesis 2.  My own University does have a few higher-ups who monitor what I write, and who are reading this right now.  Yes, really.  (Hi, there.  Vir-wave!)  There are long-running, on-going disputes between CWRU and myself, about which I shall not comment at this time.  Would someone at CWRU pull some stunt?  I cannot rule out that possibility.

What actually happened?  Google did not say, and for two months, this blog was down.  Why?  All I can do is hypothesize.  Or better yet, make what a rational person should of life.

I have been sketching out various ideas, and planning to put something together elsewhere.  It may be substack, or some other platform.  I am not yet certain, but I will put up an announcement and link here when I do the shift.  After a stunt like that, I am not stickin' around here.  Look for some announcements soon, along with a link.

I am well.  Life is strangely good, in the ways that matter.  Your outlook and philosophy determine everything.  Music, as always.  Here is an absolute badass of a musician, Carolyn Wonderland, covering "Still Alive and Well," from Miss Understood.