Earlier today, Harper's posted a letter co-signed by some of the biggest names in liberal literary, arts, and activist spaces. Such prominent co-signers include Noam Chomksy, JK Rowling, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Atwood, and countless others. This letter is an admonishment about the so-called "Cancel Culture" that is becoming increasingly associated with the discourse and dissent in left-leaning spaces. They speak out against the "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", particularly in the face of an upcoming electoral battle to unseat President Trump come November and in the backdrop of the various social justice movements that are being highlighted in the current times. The letter:
https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/The prevailing argument is that only through solidarity and unification that persists even when, or especially when, ideological purity and consensus is not achieved, will the left be able to counteract the right.
Quote (Harper's Letter)
The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought.
Quote (Harper's Letter)
This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other.
Many agree with this sentiment, beyond just the elites who co-signed, but also among the general population. However; of course, there are still many others who disagree. This letter has been met with criticisms highlighting that there is no such thing as "Cancel Culture", and that this is merely an attempt by elites within the left to avoid or assuage any sense of accountability. Some had the following to say:
Quote (Hamilton Nolan)
This entire spectacle of a letter, published in one of America’s most prestigious magazines, signed by dozens and dozens of famous writers and journalists and academics, declaring breathlessly that “We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other,” is almost intolerably exasperating. Its very existence is a devastating counterargument to its central point. Would it be rude to point out to these esteemed thinkers that the fact that they were considered prestigious enough to be invited to sign this letter is proof that they are not, in fact, being silenced? That, rather, this collective wallowing in self-pity over “censoriousness” by a group of people employed by Harvard and Princeton and M.I.T. and the Brookings Institution and The Atlantic and The New York Times and a host of other elite institutions is evidence that perhaps they doth protest too much? If being a billionaire best-selling author like J.K. Rowling or the dean of Columbia Journalism School like Nick Lemann is somehow indicative of being particularly at risk for “public shaming and ostracism,” I would like to humbly volunteer to trade places with them.
I don't personally have a Twitter, so I'm unsure how this affects which comments get displayed once you click on the post about the letter that Harper's put up on Twitter. But, the response seems to be largely negative in response. Here are the first/top comments that come up when I clicked to see the comments:
Source:
https://twitter.com/Harpers/status/1280495875165425670This post was edited by Handcuffs on Jul 7 2020 07:44pm
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