I've only just become aware of the #HarpersLetter. Here are my thoughts.

1. Dogmatic pile-ons enacted by a well-meaning but uninformed mob CAN be problematic. But that issue only applies to situations where the mob has leapt to a conclusion as a result of a mischaracterisation.
2. When a public figure with a large platform proves their toxicity time and time again through their words and actions, their "cancellation" is absolutely legitimate and appropriate.

There is always a reasonability test that distinguishes the two.
That test is simple. If a cancellation effort requires a coercion of someone's behaviour into a particular category, don't cancel. If that person's actions obviously fit a pattern, then activism is not only appropriate but required.
For example - one can be anti-zionist without being anti-semitic. One can be anti-capitalist without being a bandit. One can show bad judgement without being an abuser.

If you need to shove words sideways into someone's mouth to cancel them, that's an act of entitlement.
JKR, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Jaded Kushner, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, Boris Johnson, pausing Hansen, Ben Shapiro, Milo Yiannopoulous, etc... have all shown us exactly who they are. They deserve every iota of any deplatforming that arises from their "cancellation".
On the flipside, anyone who actively and consistently distances themselves from what they have been accused of, and works against the causes they have been associated with perhaps deserves the benefit of the doubt. If people exhibit the behaviour we want them to show, THANK them.
As a final comment, someone's membership of a marginalised group does not excuse them from critique. It's completely valid to expect them to understand and respect intersectionality. E.g. JKR's claims to feminism do not excuse her transphobia.
Likewise, calling out Trump's bigotry and addled entitlement is not anti-christian by virtue of his Christianity. Condemning Ben Netanyahu's fascist Zionism is not anti-semitic.

Look to where the harm is. Look at who is being hurt. That's where the truth of a person's evil lies.
Most importantly, look for the ignorant entitlement. Look for the malice. Look for the protection of privilege over the admission of it. And if they're not present, perhaps counsel rather than cancel. If, having been exposed to the harms they are causing, people still do wrong?
Then let them have every iota of your ire and your enmity until they take ownership of what they've done and go about the work of not only repairing that harm, but never causing it again.
You can follow @BlueJayGliding.
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