yet academia is now the top example of cancel culture
I’m a little surprised by this wording? Certainly cancel culture is starting to affect academia as well, but I don’t think that e.g. most researchers think about the risk of getting cancelled when figuring out the wording for their papers, unless they are working on some exceptionally controversial topic?
I have lots of friends in academia and follow academic blogs etc., and basically don’t hear any of them talking about cancel culture within that context. I did recently see a philosopher recently post a controversial paper and get backlash for it on Twitter, but then he seemed to basically shrug it off since people complaining on Twitter didn’t really affect him. This fits my general model that most of the cancel culture influence on academia comes from people outside academia trying to affect it, with varying success.
I don’t doubt that there are individual pockets with academia that are more cancely, but the rest of academia seems to me mostly unaffected by them.
I’m a little surprised by this wording? Certainly cancel culture is starting to affect academia as well, but I don’t think that e.g. most researchers think about the risk of getting cancelled when figuring out the wording for their papers, unless they are working on some exceptionally controversial topic?
Professors are already overwhelmingly leftists or left-leaning (almost all conservatives have been driven away or self-selected away), and now even left-leaning professors are being canceled or fearful of being canceled. See:
and this comment in the comments section of a NYT story about cancel culture among the students:
Having just graduated from the University of Minnesota last year, a very liberal college, I believe these examples don’t adequately show how far cancel culture has gone and what it truly is. The examples used of disassociating from obvious homophobes, or more classic bullying that teenage girls have always done to each other since the dawn of time is not new and not really cancel culture. The cancel culture that is truly new to my generation is the full blocking or shutting out of someone who simply has a different opinion than you. My experience in college was it morphed into a culture of fear for most. The fear of cancellation or punishment for voicing an opinion that the “group” disagreed with created a culture where most of us sat silent. My campus was not one of fruitful debate, but silent adherence to whatever the most “woke” person in the classroom decided was the correct thing to believe or think. This is not how things worked in the past, people used to be able to disagree, debate and sometimes feel offended because we are all looking to get closer to the truth on whatever topic it may be. Our problem with cancel culture is it snuffs out any debate, there is no longer room for dissent or nuance, the group can decide that your opinion isn’t worth hearing and—poof you’ve been canceled into oblivion. Whatever it’s worth I’d like to note I’m a liberal, voted for Obama and Hillary, those who participate in cancel culture aren’t liberals to me, they’ve hijacked the name.
About “I have lots of friends in academia and follow academic blogs etc., and basically don’t hear any of them talking about cancel culture within that context.” there could be a number of explanations aside from cancel culture not being that bad in academia. Maybe you could ask them directly about it?
Thanks. It looks to me that much of what’s being described at these links is about the atmosphere among the students at American universities, which then also starts affecting the professors there. That would explain my confusion, since a large fraction of my academic friends are European, so largely unaffected by these developments.
there could be a number of explanations aside from cancel culture not being that bad in academia.
I do hear them complain about various other things though, and I also have friends privately complaining about cancel culture in non-academic contexts, so I’d generally expect this to come up if it were an issue. But I could still ask, of course.
I’m a little surprised by this wording? Certainly cancel culture is starting to affect academia as well, but I don’t think that e.g. most researchers think about the risk of getting cancelled when figuring out the wording for their papers, unless they are working on some exceptionally controversial topic?
I have lots of friends in academia and follow academic blogs etc., and basically don’t hear any of them talking about cancel culture within that context. I did recently see a philosopher recently post a controversial paper and get backlash for it on Twitter, but then he seemed to basically shrug it off since people complaining on Twitter didn’t really affect him. This fits my general model that most of the cancel culture influence on academia comes from people outside academia trying to affect it, with varying success.
I don’t doubt that there are individual pockets with academia that are more cancely, but the rest of academia seems to me mostly unaffected by them.
Professors are already overwhelmingly leftists or left-leaning (almost all conservatives have been driven away or self-selected away), and now even left-leaning professors are being canceled or fearful of being canceled. See:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/academics-are-really-really-worried-about-their-freedom/615724/
https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/pFAavCTW56iTsYkvR/ai-alignment-open-thread-october-2019#comment-Pbpb4JNszz3o22vv9
and this comment in the comments section of a NYT story about cancel culture among the students:
About “I have lots of friends in academia and follow academic blogs etc., and basically don’t hear any of them talking about cancel culture within that context.” there could be a number of explanations aside from cancel culture not being that bad in academia. Maybe you could ask them directly about it?
Thanks. It looks to me that much of what’s being described at these links is about the atmosphere among the students at American universities, which then also starts affecting the professors there. That would explain my confusion, since a large fraction of my academic friends are European, so largely unaffected by these developments.
I do hear them complain about various other things though, and I also have friends privately complaining about cancel culture in non-academic contexts, so I’d generally expect this to come up if it were an issue. But I could still ask, of course.