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There is some debate as to whether cancel culture is real and what its exact definition is. This article from RealClearPolitics discusses it and includes links

There is some debate as to whether cancel culture is real and what its exact definition is. This article from RealClearPolitics discusses it and includes links to some opposing views as well: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/07/15/cancel_culture_is_real.html https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/07/15/cancel... To me, cancel culture is the notion of introducing political/ideological/personal stances into various spheres where it doesn’t belong (is not directly relevant) and using it to suppress certain views, punish those who harbor those views, exclude certain lines of research/debate from being pursued, and instill fear (of reprisal) in those who might otherwise explore those areas. It is not focused on correctness of views or resolution of conflicting conclusions, but rather blind censorship, suppression, and use of fear. In this case, the LSA recently introduced a “racial justice” policy and now the signatories of this letter are claiming that inclusion of Pinker is not aligned to this new policy. What does racial justice have to do with the LSA’s core field that isn’t already included as part of the pursuit of truth? Very little. It is the injection of a political and ideological view into a scientific sphere. Adoption of such a policy enables the weaponization of the organization’s structure/laws against Pinker. The specific incidents (statements made by Pinker) that are called out in the letter are issues that can be debated without such a policy in place. The correctness of some claim (like “there is no racial bias in police shooting”) is worthy of scrutiny independent of this campaign to cancel Pinker. After all, isn’t that the point of research - to develop ideas, gather facts, form arguments, and compare against other findings? Why isn’t that sufficient - shouldn’t the truth set us free? Researchers and professors are both allowed to be wrong and allowed to form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment. Without that there is no environment for honest learning and expansion of societal knowledge. But cancel culture precludes such exploration by taking ideological opinions as fundamental factual presumptions. And there is no room for error in these situations - someone like Pinker can have a lifetime of achievement and correctness and then be judged on a couple tweets by a random selection of engineers, grad students, and assistant professors. As for Pinker’s specific claims - it is fairly trivial to validate them, or at least agree that there is substantial grounds to hold those opinion. The letter itself makes no serious argument against those statements that they find so problematic. I don’t want to derail this post by analyzing each claim, but my point is that it is about ideology not facts.

eesmith 6y ago
Thank you for your answer. In my wrestling with the topic, I've tried to understand why certain things are called "cancel culture" while others are not. For example, is the opposition to Colin Kaepernick part of cancel culture? To go to your definition, we have to ask if standing up for the national anthem in order to play a football game is a sphere where it doesn’t belong - which is clearly true. People play football games all the time without an anthem. So the anthem is there for some other purpose. We can see that the ritual around the activity - standing up for the anthem - suppresses the views of those who think the flag is not worth that respect. And we have court cases which show that in other circumstances, not standing for the flag is protected free speech and protected religious speech. And we see how adherence to the ritual is used to punish those who harbor those with other views, where the "mob" reaction in this case includes Trump's call to fire those who refuse to stand. Yet, while Kaepernick's case seems to fit your definition, that isn't what people seem to mean by "cancel culture." (I could go on with other cases, but my comment is already too long.) You write that they say that Pinker's views are "not aligned to this new policy". But all they are calling for is to have his name removed from a couple of lists where the LSA privileges some LSA members over others. They are not calling for him to be removed from the LSA, but only not given special ranking. Pinker himself says he's not worried this will cancel him. So what does "cancel" even mean here? Is any loss of even minor status equivalent to "cancel"? Because it reads like the people involved are snowflakes who can't stand the least bit of possible negative consequences to their speech, and I can't figure out why anyone outside the LSA would care. You write: "What does racial justice have to do with the LSA’s core field that isn’t already included as part of the pursuit of truth? Very little." Now, I know squat about the LSA but your argument comes across as a 19th century view of science. Science ethics classes often use the Tuskegee syphilis experiment as an example where the 'pursuit of truth' lead to racial injustice. If truth sets us free, how were the African-American men involved any more free as a result of the study? And Guatemala considers its sibling experiments there to be a crime against humanity. So no, I don't think simple "pursuit of truth" is the right framework to think about this topic. Again, I know squat all about the LSA. But going right to "must defend the unhindered investigation of truth" - which has been proven time and again to be wrong for other fields of science - just doesn't seem like a good defense. You write "Researchers and professors are both allowed to be wrong and allowed to form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment." I looked at William A. Jacobson essay you linked to. Jacobson writes that he faces "no adverse employment action because of my academic freedom and job security". Since he's free to 'form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment' - how is he "cancelled"? And I see that elsewhere - Stephen Hsu resigned from his administrative position at MSU but retains his tenured faculty position. Yet that's still called part of "cancel culture" even though he can use his job to form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment. It seems like tenured positions are a strong weapon against being cancelled, so why aren't the people who complain about cancel culture also pushing for more tenured positions, and stopping the exploitative adjunct teaching position where people with opposing viewpoints aren't "canceled" so much as "don't have their contract renewed for the next term"? But it feels like many of those who complain about cancel culture also want to remove tenure in teaching positions and increase uncertainty in the ability to express ideas - which comes across like "cancel culture" is (re-using your phrase) "simply rhetorical warfare".

eesmith 6y ago

Thank you for your answer. In my wrestling with the topic, I've tried to understand why certain things are called "cancel culture" while others are not. For example, is the opposition to Colin Kaepernick part of cancel culture? To go to your definition, we have to ask if standing up for the national anthem in order to play a football game is a sphere where it doesn’t belong - which is clearly true. People play football games all the time without an anthem. So the anthem is there for some other purpose. We can see that the ritual around the activity - standing up for the anthem - suppresses the views of those who think the flag is not worth that respect. And we have court cases which show that in other circumstances, not standing for the flag is protected free speech and protected religious speech. And we see how adherence to the ritual is used to punish those who harbor those with other views, where the "mob" reaction in this case includes Trump's call to fire those who refuse to stand. Yet, while Kaepernick's case seems to fit your definition, that isn't what people seem to mean by "cancel culture." (I could go on with other cases, but my comment is already too long.) You write that they say that Pinker's views are "not aligned to this new policy". But all they are calling for is to have his name removed from a couple of lists where the LSA privileges some LSA members over others. They are not calling for him to be removed from the LSA, but only not given special ranking. Pinker himself says he's not worried this will cancel him. So what does "cancel" even mean here? Is any loss of even minor status equivalent to "cancel"? Because it reads like the people involved are snowflakes who can't stand the least bit of possible negative consequences to their speech, and I can't figure out why anyone outside the LSA would care. You write: "What does racial justice have to do with the LSA’s core field that isn’t already included as part of the pursuit of truth? Very little." Now, I know squat about the LSA but your argument comes across as a 19th century view of science. Science ethics classes often use the Tuskegee syphilis experiment as an example where the 'pursuit of truth' lead to racial injustice. If truth sets us free, how were the African-American men involved any more free as a result of the study? And Guatemala considers its sibling experiments there to be a crime against humanity. So no, I don't think simple "pursuit of truth" is the right framework to think about this topic. Again, I know squat all about the LSA. But going right to "must defend the unhindered investigation of truth" - which has been proven time and again to be wrong for other fields of science - just doesn't seem like a good defense. You write "Researchers and professors are both allowed to be wrong and allowed to form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment." I looked at William A. Jacobson essay you linked to. Jacobson writes that he faces "no adverse employment action because of my academic freedom and job security". Since he's free to 'form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment' - how is he "cancelled"? And I see that elsewhere - Stephen Hsu resigned from his administrative position at MSU but retains his tenured faculty position. Yet that's still called part of "cancel culture" even though he can use his job to form opinions that disagree with the prevailing sentiment. It seems like tenured positions are a strong weapon against being cancelled, so why aren't the people who complain about cancel culture also pushing for more tenured positions, and stopping the exploitative adjunct teaching position where people with opposing viewpoints aren't "canceled" so much as "don't have their contract renewed for the next term"? But it feels like many of those who complain about cancel culture also want to remove tenure in teaching positions and increase uncertainty in the ability to express ideas - which comes across like "cancel culture" is (re-using your phrase) "simply rhetorical warfare".