What if Cancel Culture Were Just Our New Reality?
To be honest, I never really believed that cancel culture was a thing. Most of those complaining seemed to be privileged elites being denied insane salaries and prestigious positions for legitimate reasons. While I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech, I don’t believe in the right to be free from any and all consequences for your speech. As everything in life, whether a reaction is merited or not is a matter of proportion.
In other words, I will stand against people being denied their rights in any way based on their opinions — but I will most certainly reserve my right to judge them for what they say. If someone holds an opinion that is demonstrably unjust or could lead to people getting hurt, that person shouldn’t have access to lots of power and influence. Power and influence are not rights.
Having the right to say something is very different from having the right to be paid to shout something through a megaphone.
Then, I read Harper’s Magazine’s “ A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” In it, prominent intellectuals call out what they believe is a societal shift toward intolerance and ideological conformity. If the letter is to be believed, we are, as a society, sliding away from the ideal of a marketplace of ideas and toward what the letter refers to as “the consensus.” What that consensus is, I don’t…
