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Analysis: Cancel culture lacks due process; it has no checks and balances on the potential ruination of reputations. There are other ways.
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Its not as if cancel culture is new.
Socrates, a freethinking ancient Greek philosopher, was sentenced to death for not being pious enough and for corrupting youth. The story goes that Jesus of Nazareth was condemned by an outraged mob before being crucified.
Novelist Salman Rushdie was subjected to a fatwa that called for his execution for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his book The Satanic Verses. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes unresolved in part because opponents demonize each other with accusations of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
But cancel culture is spreading wider today. Social media has expanded the power of mass cancellation and de-platforming (stopping a person from contributing to a public forum). Polls suggest two of three North Americans believe social media is fostering more hatred and violence.
Its not out of line to point out cancel culture has some positive aspects, because it gives people with little power the chance to rein in those with a great deal of it. And zealots who promote violence need to be stopped one way or another.
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But the disturbing problem with cancel culture is it is most often characterized by vigilantism and moral panic. It lacks due process; it has no checks and balances on the potential ruination of reputations.
Prof. Samir Gandesha, a political theorist and head of Simon Fraser Universitys Institute for the Humanities, teaches a course that delves deeply into such issues and more.
While some people go so far as to pretend that cancel culture doesnt really exist, Gandesha believes the opposite: Its extremely consequential.
Cancel culture, or mass ostracization, is the death of reasoned discourse, Gandesha says. It equates conflict with abuse, mere offence with actual harm. Ironically, it is often done in the name of protecting safe spaces.
Online cancel culture usually descends like a sudden avalanche of contempt and mockery, causing panic among victims and employers. Gandesha says it makes redemption impossible for those perceived to have made a mistake. It ensures there is zero possibility of problem-solving, of coming to a solution to a conflict.
The list is growing of prominent people who have been publicly threatened and lost some or all of their livelihoods because of (often-minor) perceived transgressions. They include Canadians Michelle Latimer, Don Cherry, Wendy Mesley, Jessica Mulroney and Jordan Peterson. Internationally there are J.K. Rowling, Bari Weiss, The Chicks, Roseanne Barr, Scarlett Johansson and too many others to mention.
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Gandesha, who considers himself a critical Marxist, has also been on the receiving end.
Some tried to cancel a talk hed organized by media professor Laura Kipnis, who criticizes aspects of feminism. Gandesha has also had to deal with B.C. mining executives protesting an event that shone light on their industrys shadier behaviour.
While Gandesha is grateful SFUs administration has stood up for free expression and academic freedom, hes aware higher education is far from immune to cancel culture. Indeed, many activist academics and students have lead the charge to ostracize professors and speakers they find provoking.
Eric Kaufmann is a political-science professor at University of London, Birkbeck, who was raised in Hong Kong and Vancouver. He recently led a groundbreaking study into scholars attitudes to free expression in Britain and North America. His poll findings reveal the air is definitely chilly.
Less than 10 per cent of Canadian academics generally support campaigns to dismiss scholars who report controversial findings around race and gender, Kaufmann found. However, a large group, of around 30 per cent to 60 per cent, do not actively oppose cancellation. This mirrors American and British findings.
Kaufmann, whose origins are Jewish, Hispanic and Chinese, also discovered that major academic departments are overwhelmingly made up of people who are left wing.
Seventy-three per cent of Canadian social science and humanities academics sampled from the 40 top-ranked universities identify as left-wing, with just four per cent identifying as right-wing. The few conservatives who remain report the climate is hostile, with many self-selecting away from academia.
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Partly because of Kaufmanns widely discussed report, the British government has brought in legislation to require universities to protect the free speech of staff, students and visiting speakers.
Asked about Kaufmanns study, Gandesha said he believes conservatives are more prevalent in academia in the natural sciences than in the social sciences. He also emphasized theyre powerful outside universities, particularly in privately funded think tanks, business and some governments.
Nevertheless, Gandesha acknowledged, You have many problems with hearing from conservatives at university. And while Im not a conservative, I can certainly learn from conservatives at an academic level. Its a bit of the need to know thine enemy.
While many university administrations have been less than zealous in their defence of free speech on issues such as diversity, ethnicity and gender, Gandesha believes scholars have an obligation to lead because discussion is the only route to resolving conflict.
Administrations could start by protecting the weakening tenure system, which provides senior professors with job security, says Gandesha, who has tenure. He is worried many faculty, especially adjuncts, self-censor to the extreme knowing they can be destroyed by a vendetta over a wayward remark.
As for the chaotic, vicious world of social media, Gandesha joins those who believe its time to treat giant internet companies like utilities, organizations that provide the public with electricity, gas or water. That means bringing in complex regulations so that decisions about what can be shared online arent left to the mania of the crowd.
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And how hard, Gandesha asks, would it be to respond to polarization by having more public debates between people on the left and right like the way, in 1973, that revolutionary Black Panther Huey P. Newton appeared on the show Firing Line with conservative commentator William F. Buckley.
Its not impossible to do so today, although its rare. To their credit, University of Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has been subjected to boycott campaigns on some campuses, and Marxist philosopher Slavoj iek were able to model how to dialogue when they took part in a debate in 2019.
Why is it important to rein in cancel culture and its attendant moral posturing? Gandesha puts it nicely when he says it goes back to the ultimate purpose of philosophy which is the pursuit of the love of wisdom, not the parading of it.
Twitter.com/@douglastodd
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Douglas Todd: There is an alternative to the mob mentality of cancel culture - Vancouver Sun