Many people argue that people are not really at risk regarding cancel culture. John McWhorter offers some real numbers in his article in The Atlantic, “Academics Are Really, Really Worried About Their Freedom: Some fear for their career because they don’t believe progressive orthodoxies.”
To the extent that the new progressives acknowledge that some prominent people have been unfairly tarred—including the food columnist Alison Roman, the data analyst David Shor, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art senior curator Gary Garrels—they often insist that these are mere one-off detours rather than symptoms of a general cultural sea change.
For example, in July I tweeted that I (as well as my Bloggingheads sparring partner Glenn Loury) have been receiving missives since May almost daily from professors living in constant fear for their career because their opinions are incompatible with the current woke playbook. Then various people insisted that I was, essentially, lying; they simply do not believe that anyone remotely reasonable has anything to worry about.
However, hard evidence points to a different reality. This year, the Heterodox Academy conducted an internal member survey of 445 academics. “Imagine expressing your views about a controversial issue while at work, at a time when faculty, staff, and/or other colleagues were present. To what extent would you worry about the following consequences?” To the hypothetical “My reputation would be tarnished,” 32.68 percent answered “very concerned” and 27.27 percent answered “extremely concerned.” To the hypothetical “My career would be hurt,” 24.75 percent answered “very concerned” and 28.68 percent answered “extremely concerned.” In other words, more than half the respondents consider expressing views beyond a certain consensus in an academic setting quite dangerous to their career trajectory.
So no one should feign surprise or disbelief that academics write to me with great frequency to share their anxieties. In a three-week period early this summer, I counted some 150 of these messages. And what they reveal is a very rational culture of fear among those who dissent, even slightly, with the tenets of the woke left.
I participate regularly in an online forum ostensibly for people who prize thought over emotion. It is also dominated by members who are kneejerk partisan Democrats. Defense of cancel culture is always done with anecdotes and appeals to emotion. The same has surfaced in defending the current riots, to the extent of claiming they do not occur and that those harmed deserve whatever harm befell them.
There is no interest in factual data.Statistics are refuted with anecdotes. Peer-reviewed studies are refuted with opinion pieces. “Experts” on law cite principles from Bizzaro-world. Claims of racism are made against anyone who wants to proclaim that all lives matter or, worse, that black lives mattering appears to depend on how useful the example is politically.
One reliably progressive poster claimed the US justice system is so corrupt and compromised it cannot be fixed and can only be overturned. In my understanding the justice system is the enforcement mechanism for the Constitution, and cannot be overturned without overturning the Constitution as well. But I suspect that’s the goal anyway.
I’m getting a general sense that people are becoming more and more self-entitled and whining in these times. I recall an old phrase, “if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” But, my guess now is someone would brand that a “micro-aggression” and an attempt to “cancel” them. And so it goes.