More and more high-profile intellectuals of all political persuasions are rejecting cancel culture. "The free exchange of information and ideas...is daily becoming more constricted," read a letter in Harper's magazine co-signed by over 150 luminaries, including the controversial linguist Noam Chomsky, the old-school feminist Gloria Steinem and the incisive journalist Bari Weiss. Weiss recently resigned from The New York Times, where she was the object of appalling mistreatment because of her centrist views. The wry firebrand Andrew Sullivan is leaving New York Magazine for similar reasons. To these courageous rebels, I say: bravo! Now vote Republican.
I mean this in all seriousness. Cancel culture is a vile blight upon Western civilization, and speaking out against it takes guts. Powerful enforcers of cancel culture, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), may claim that they only want their opponents "held accountable." Sinister martinets, like Times columnist Charles Blow, may insist that in fact there is no such thing as cancelation. But people at every level of American life have been forced to perform acts of public contrition for such innocuous deeds as wearing conservative T-shirts (Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy) or interviewing Black people who are critical of the Black Lives Matter movement (Intercept reporter Lee Fang). The danger to our civil liberties is real. The foundations of America's republic are under threat.
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