Not Tired of Winning Yet CXXXII
A reader with the singular yet egressive name of Exit Only writes:
J.K. Rowling, Bari Weiss and Noam Chomsky Among Dozens to Sign Open Letter Calling for End to Cancel Culture
The letter addressed the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and calls to defund the police — acknowledging that the demands are over due while warning against cancel culture and being intolerant of differences.
“But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity,” the letter reads. “The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.”
A samples of Twitter responses:
Ian Miles Cheong Replying to @Harpers
“I see only a collection of spineless liberals who never spoke out when cancel culture came for conservatives but now express concern when it’s affecting the intelligentsia. And how do they respond? With mild chiding, as if the far left are children to be scolded.”
Dave Rubin@RubinReport replies:
“Hilariously ridiculous. And several people on there who have tried to cancel me personally. The weakness of liberalism is totally out in the open.”
The letter as posted to Harper’s is here: https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/
My comment:
The signatories all subscribed their names to the following sentence appearing in the letter:
“The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy.”
As if Lucretia were called a rapist by Tarquin the Proud.
As someone who was cancelled out of consideration for the most prestigious award in the Science Fiction field, and blacklisted from all major publications and anthologies thereafter, I note that I, myself, happen to be a member of the group, namely, proud supporters of Donald Trump, being here accused.
Here, by way of contrast, are the words of the alleged threat to democracy:
One of their political weapons is “Cancel Culture” — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.
This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life.
In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us.
Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.
To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.
So the people who tried to cancel all the voters who voted for Donald Trump, now find the NPC mob they gathered, instructed, encouraged, and unleashed turning on them, do they?
And here is a word from a half-insane vigilante:
Be not deceived: small as this is, it is a moral victory, and yet another sign that the lunatics are fracturing. The hydra bites off its own heads. Thus oft evil will evil mar.
* ** *** ***
UPDATE:
Kerri Greenidge, Historian, has already caved to pressure and retracted her signature, which no longer appears on the Harper’s Bazaar website.
Jennifer Finny Boylan, Author, [who, despite the name, is a man] also retracted his signature, on the grounds that he had not been informed beforehand of who else might sign the letter, perhaps of whom he did not wish to be seen to agree, albeit he did agree.
They have renounced their own names.
Allow me, please to quote one more source:
“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
