Cancel culture continues to exert itself across countless academic institutions in punishment for increasingly benign transgressions.
Recent examples include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s deplatforming of Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist at the University of Chicago, over his belief that academic evaluations should be based on merit instead of equity initiatives, and the resignation of Kathleen Stock from the University of Sussex’s philosophy department, after a prolonged campaign of harassment from transgender activists over Stock’s belief that biological sex is an important variable.
One could argue that cancellations are a much-needed corrective tool to inspire change within the academy. Minority groups have historically lacked the ability to hold the powerful to account, particularly in the context of obtaining justice for experienced discrimination.
In instances of cancellation, however, the punishment is often not commensurate to the act of wrongdoing. In many cases, individuals are punished for merely voicing a different opinion. Instead of targeting extremism, cancelers cast a wide net, censoring even milquetoast, reasonable positions. Cancellation mobs come across as opportunistic, with ringleaders seizing upon the chance to attain greater prominence and attention.
Academia’s politically intolerant climate, which led to my own decision to leave the sciences to become a journalist, has only worsened since I left. The speed by which these changes have occurred is nothing short of astonishing.
Academia exists for the purpose of truth-seeking. Differing perspectives should be welcomed and challenged in the name of intellectual inquiry. But instead of embracing this free-thinking attitude, activist professors and students intimidate and penalize those who don’t conform to their ideas.
This bullying is antithetical to the reasons one should attend university. It incentivizes students to embrace a victim mentality, to be perpetually offended, and to seek vengeance as a way to become successful. Once students have internalized this messaging, they can be relied upon to carry their professors’ mission forward.
Cancel culture committed by either side of the political aisle is destructive, but because academia possesses a strong left-leaning skew, it is woke illiberalism that is destroying the academy. The suppression of academic freedom affects not only right-leaning individuals, forcing them to self-censor, but also centrists and liberals (like myself).
Academia has lost its way when ideological conformity and controlling the way people think is cherished over intellectual rigor. Those pushing this agenda won’t stop until they have bent every dissenter to their will, purging society of anything standing in their way.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
