THESE LETTERS OFTEN FAIL TO INTIMIDATE THEIR SUBJECTS, BUT THIS RECIPIENT IS ESPECIALLY UN-INTIMIDATED: Cease and Desist Deez Nuts: In which the Midwest Political Science Association attempts to silence and intimidate an independent journalist. “This is the second C&D letter I have received in my life. The first was from George Soros’ lawyers and it was much, much more competent than this one. This one is a farce. The first thing I notice is how poorly it is written. There are several typos e.g. failing to capitalize ‘Substack.’ The grammar mistakes kill me — this person wrote that in 5 minutes with zero proofreading or due diligence and probably charged like $25,000 for it. Also, this letter repeats “will not be tolerated“ like five times. If this lawyer charged more than $10 for this, he’s a scammer; this is exactly the calibre of a letter that I would expect from someone with this calibre of fashion sense. . . . I will not be cowed by a 3rd rate legal mind acting on behalf of a pair of 2nd rate gender studies scholars.”

Plus: “It basically makes it clear they’re just mad at me for bothering them — ‘Stop Being mean to us on Twitter and Substack or we will sue!’ There is nothing of substance in the letter. One example of how blatantly devoid of substance this letter is is that they accused me of ‘violence.’ The letter says, ‘you went so far as to encourage violence.’ Of course, they do not provide an example of violence; if they had one, they would’ve jumped at the opportunity to brandish it.”

Also, academics now call everything they don’t like “harassment.” Putting up a bunch of blog posts charging academic misconduct isn’t “harassment. If the claims are false it may be libel, but it’s no more “harassment” than if a newspaper ran a series of stories about someone, which nobody would call harassment.”

Much, much (maybe too much) more at the link.