A stark conclusion of “you’re going to lose” seems like it’s updating too much on a small number of examples.
For every story we hear about someone being cancelled, how many times has such an attempt been unsuccessful (no story) or even led to mutual reconciliation and understanding between the parties (no story)? How many times have niceness, community, and civilization won out over opposing forces?
(I once talked to a professor of mine at Yale who was accused by a student of sharing racist material. It was a misunderstanding. She resolved it with a single brief email to the student, who was glad to have been heard and had no further concerns. No story.)
I’m also not sure what your recommendation is here. Is it “refuse to communicate with people who espouse beliefs of type X”? Is it “create a centralized set of rules for how EA groups invite speakers”?
A stark conclusion of “you’re going to lose” seems like it’s updating too much on a small number of examples.
For every story we hear about someone being cancelled, how many times has such an attempt been unsuccessful (no story) or even led to mutual reconciliation and understanding between the parties (no story)? How many times have niceness, community, and civilization won out over opposing forces?
(I once talked to a professor of mine at Yale who was accused by a student of sharing racist material. It was a misunderstanding. She resolved it with a single brief email to the student, who was glad to have been heard and had no further concerns. No story.)
I’m also not sure what your recommendation is here. Is it “refuse to communicate with people who espouse beliefs of type X”? Is it “create a centralized set of rules for how EA groups invite speakers”?