The Canceling of the American Mind

May 1, 2023

Lukianoff and Schlott follow up The Coddling of the American Mind with The Canceling of the American Mind, which argues that both Left and Right use cancel culture to silence opposition and debate and win arguments through too-easy rhetoric. Prepub Alert.

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December 1, 2023
Two journalists recount and lament the rise of "cancel culture." Working under the aegis of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Lukianoff and Schlott describe a phenomenon that has become commonplace, especially in public schools and on college campuses: Say something with which someone disagrees, and not only won't you be able to say it, but you'll be punished for having a divergent opinion. The phenomenon is real, the authors assert, although many ascribe it to being corrected for being wrong and being aggrieved by the correction in the bargain. The canceling comes from both left and right, the authors hasten to add, even though most of their examples center on bad behavior on the part of illiberal liberals: A favorite canceling word on the part of the left is the very word conservative, to which a rightist might counter with the word woke. Whatever the case, write the authors, "cancel culture has upended lives, ruined careers, undermined companies, hindered the production of knowledge, destroyed trust in institutions, and plunged us into an ever-worsening culture war." What's more (and perhaps what's worse) is the idea that only a bad person can harbor a bad--meaning different from yours--idea. Many, but not all, of the authors' examples are well known, among them the virtual bludgeoning of a woman who dared write that her college campus was hostile to free thought; the banning of so-called conservative speakers (among them, in a twisted interpretation, the renowned leftist Noam Chomsky) from campus; the rise of required diversity, equity, and inclusion statements in public institutions ("political litmus tests that violate academic freedom"); and the political war on critical race theory and ethnic studies. A reasonable case for attempting to bridge disagreements in a civil manner rather than via civil war.

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