The New York Times claims that America has a free speech problem, but many dispute whether cancel culture is an elephant or a flea. Kaufmann’s research finds that the answer lies somewhere in between.
The New York Times recently editorialized against cancel culture, generating a storm of indignation among many progressives. Meanwhile, at a speech in Washington, D.C., British Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden declared a trans-Atlantic war on wokeness, an ideology that he believes is replacing freedom with cancel culture, and sapping the vitality of Western democracies while emboldening autocratic challenger states like China and Russia. French president Emmanuel Macron has, like Dowden, condemned the same ideas.
Cancel culture and political correctness were once internal affairs of universities, but they are a growing issue that is starting to decide elections. At the same time, the wider political environment increasingly shapes what happens on campus. Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently passed the Stop WOKE Act to ban critical race theory in schools, but there are concerns the ban could spill over into college classrooms. We face a vicious cycle where cancel culture threats in education and in society operate in both ideological directions, undermining liberalism.
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Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute.
This piece originally appeared in Heterodox Academy