Kate Clanchy, Richard Dawkins and Priyamvada Gopal write about their
experiences with cancellation.
In ASCII form, the page doesn't say whose writing starts where, but I
think that Kate Clanchy's part starts with "I have no doubt that the
critic," Richard Dawkins's part starts with "A university is a
Socratic haven of free thought," and Priyamvada Gopal's part starts
with "Let me be upfront."
I read the first part of Clanchy's book to see what the offense was
about. She described physical and cultural traits of the various
demographic groups of children she taught, mentioning differences that
made an impression on her — but her only wish was to teach them all,
not to judge them, and they appreciated that.
Maybe I understand how some people could look at that writing with a
particular squint and see bigotry. What Clanchy wrote is not bigotry,
but it has some superficial resemblance to certain expressions of
bigotry. A racist might mention some of those same group
characteristics as a build-up for a racist sneer at those children,
and at their adult relatives. That would be real bigotry.
The error those cancellers made was to hype themselves into a
hairtrigger state in which they look at something that superficially
resembles bigotry, declare it to be real bigotry, and explode into
hatred.
Clanchy warns that cancellation will someday drive someone to suicide.
Sad to say, this has already happened. David Chappelle tells
how his friend, trans comedienne Daphne Dwarman, was cancelled for
supporting him, and killed herself from the pain. I would expect
there are dozens more such instances.
I love Dawkins's point about the extreme contrast between progressive
acceptance of transgenderism and condemnation of transracialism. The
physical difference between the sexes is fundamental to reproduction;
the physical difference between human racial groups is a matter of
minor details that only occasionally have a substantial direct effect
on living. In both cases we surround those physical differences with
socially constructed roles. So why not let people identify as
whatever racial groups they choose? Or invent new ones?
What about the right-wing cancellationism that Priyamvada Gopal
reports? It operates using state power and financial influence.
Left-wing cancellationism does not have state power or financial
influence to work with, so it operates using hate mobs. They are both
harmful to freedom of thought, but they look very different.