Maybe we're actually in the midst of huge cultural shifts and individuals are fighting bigoted power structures through the most liberal of practices: free speech. https://twitter.com/Harpers/status/1280495875165425670

To be clear, I think "cancel culture," as construed by many, is a bit of a straw man w/ disparate phenomena being clumsily lumped under a single label. I agree w/ the authors about some of the general principles, as well w/ some of the isolated examples of "going too far. . " BUT

I'd really like to know. . . .what is the appropriate social response to those who wish to debate the humanity of their fellow citizens? What is the appropriate response to those who resort to falsehoods--often in the guise of science--to maintain inequality?

If cancellation is illiberal, what should my response be to individuals who systematically misrepresent rape statistics & minimize this social problem? Or to individuals who spread falsehoods about trans women? Or to individuals who claim meaningful race-differences in IQ?

Perhaps "cancellation" (which, again, I find to be a sloppy category) introduces harm into liberal debate, but so does an insistence on honoring arguments that *seek to degrade others' equality as human beings & citizens* as somehow worthy of intellectual consideration

In this sense, please do discuss the current state of our discourse as well as harmful practices that shut down debate. This is particularly important in the internet era, where we feel license to be cruel. Where certain dynamics lead to extremism, polarization, & loss of nuance

HOWEVER, when you do this, I ask that you give a frank assessment of the harms we introduce when we allow a person's very humanity to be open to discussion. I ask that you honestly reckon w/ how you would like people to respond to speech that seeks to degrade & oppress others

B/c, at this point, I feel that those who are oppressed are being asked to relinquish the most powerful-& most liberal-tool in their arsenal: speech. I feel they are further being told it is, indeed, illiberal, for them to wield this tool against those who seek to oppress them

Much of what people are confronting today are phenomena facilitated by the internet--dynamics that are sometimes bad, sometimes good, sometimes morally blurred. . . .

But what is certain is that the speech of the oppressed has never been more powerful. People should reflect on what it means that they seek to place limits on it.