I sometimes think about the interesting difference between cleverness in the previous generation vs mine.

So like, say you're a writer in the 60s-90s. Your book, or your journalism, sells enough that your opinion is asked on various things. You might get an opinion column.

You end up on TV chat shows, not necessarily talking about your book, you're just a known Clever Person.

Removing any judgement against Boomers, that probably felt natural. You're clever, you write a bit, now you have a platform. As it should be.

It must have been stressful to them when social media first happened. They were already adjusting to / experimenting with the online space themselves, and their blog, their opinions, had still risen to the top. "Of course. I'm one of the clever people." Ego, but it does follow.

But then it turned out that actually, the world is BRIMMING with clever people. We're all clever. Everyone you follow is, and you follow hundreds if not thousands of people. They could all have opinion columns or sit on a panel.

I sometimes imagine how that must've felt.

The realisation that actually, no, you got your platform in a random and arbitrary way, and that most Clever People didn't, and that doesn't mean they're not among the Clever People.

There'll have been a professional anxiety over that. What becomes of me, then? Who will listen?

If you look at the names signing that Cancel Culture letter - that's who it is. Older writers from that time.

I'm thinking that's what their anxiety is about. Not that they'll be "cancelled," because that doesn't happen (except in cases of sexual assault, say, extreme cases)

Nobody on that list, including JK, has been Cancelled to the extent that they can't continue to operate in the usual way.

But they are Clever People from the past who feel anxiety that their platform could end up only slightly higher than the one we all stand on.

That's what they're afraid of. Anyone can talk now, and someone who's never entered a publisher's office can be on the average person's list of Known Clever People.

I can imagine that feeling, I bet it's stressful. Doesn't mean you have to let your trousers fall down in front of everybody though does it

It's not that their platform is lowering, it's that ours is rising (to meet theirs, in some cases) and that noisy crowd feels to them like an unjust silencing. Too many voices and theirs can't be heard. And aren't they The Clever People?

Maybe that's a discussion that could've been had, there might be something in it. Maybe too many voices all at once is a din, maybe electing speakers was a tradition worth preserving, etc etc...

...but they've climbed into a toilet and done a big tantrum about it instead.

Or maybe I'm overthinking what is just a load of crusty grouches cross that they don't get as much praise for saying harmful things any more.

but, that wouldn't be very clever.