The country is going through a material crisis, and its intellectuals have to convert it into a symbolic crisis in order to have anything to say

In a way this is the infection of Trump, who is obsessed with the politics of superficial appearance and gaudy statements and is totally unequipped to deal with real occurrences in any way

The circle of concern of intellectuals has become so narrow and insular that it's basically a defense of its own class issues in the guise of statements about freedom. There is no interest whatsoever in the crises facing the nation at large.

Where in the 19th century intellectuals would busy themselves with all kinds of schemes of reform, comment on the state of prisons, agriculture, society, come up with harebrained new systems of government, now it's just a last ditch effort to protect the sanctums of commentary.

A lot of people make the materialist critique of "cancel culture" as a way of knocking down people and opening up jobs, which they perhaps don't realize cuts both ways: it sort of strips the moral argument against it, and reveals its opponents to be pursuing their class interest

To be fair, the person who was fired for sharing that research about riots and protests I think was trying to do something disinterested and public spirited in the midst of a tumult. So serious efforts suffer all around.

Then basically we are arriving at a condition when intellectuals can only become ideologists and generate some kind of consistent fiction that explains the confusing present, define enemies, spin up conspiracies about their machinations etc.