No, it's just a country in which wealthy people paid for their opinions now also feel they must hide their beliefs. https://twitter.com/McCormickProf/status/1292930976176394243

The vast majority of Americans have always had to hide one or more of their beliefs in public life at one time. Only a privileged few have never had to make those decisions. Now, as soon as they are slightly uncomfortable facing any restraint at all, the world is ending.

Blacks, women, Jews, Catholics, "ethnic" whites, any other racial minority, socialists, pacifists, gays, &c. for most of our history faced limits in their ability to express themselves freely without public and professional consequences, to put it mildly, and many still do today.

Many have, in fact, been imprisoned or killed because they did hide their beliefs and conform their behavior to the demand of employers and government officials.

But the world of Ivy League tenured professors who act like assholes. Yes, maybe our country is changing for them.

And I'm not exactly the "Woke Taliban" here. I probably still have 60% of the country to the left of me. Maybe it is time to get out more, and whine a little less unseemingly for one guaranteed lifetime employment.

Have you you felt throughout your entire career that you could be consistently open about your beliefs without worrying about keeping your job or maintaining your career? (Paid opinion writers and tenured professors need not answer.)

The "cancel culture debate," if such a thing even exists, is a conversation by and among elite opinion-givers about their rights and privileges.

Far more Americans worry about things like whether they can talk about organizing a union without getting fired.

It is inherently a silly debate. No society has ever existed, or could ever exist, based on total and unrestrained honesty at all times in all matters. Such a society of human beings is not possible.

If you want to have a debate about what national opinion writers and tenured professors should and should not say, by all means, do so, but do not act like this is something new to the rest of us that is sweeping the nation. It is reality for most people, and always has been.