Being canceled over canceling cancel culture

Earlier this week a group of more than 150 prominent leftists got together to decry this epidemic of "cancel culture." In essence they were looking to stem the tide of a disturbing trend where someone who has an opinion which a group of random moral arbiters deem objectionable, that someone has their livelihood threatened and is ostracized from public life. While I appreciate this group of leftists making what is arguably a bold stance in the midst of this "wokeness" era, it would have been much more admirable had they done so in defense of their political opposites (i.e. conservatives). It was only when fellow proggies become the targets of the "woke" that these lefty intellectuals felt compelled to act. Ah, but beggars can't be choosers I guess.

Within hours of that open letter being published, a couple of the signatories couldn't stand the heat so they got outta the proverbial kitchen.

On Tuesday evening, the historian Kerri K. Greenidge tweeted “I do not endorse this @Harpers letter,” and said she was in touch with the magazine about a retraction. (Giulia Melucci, a spokeswoman for Harper’s, said the magazine had fact-checked all signatures and that Dr. Greenidge had signed off. But she said the magazine is “respectfully removing her name.”)

If what Ms. Greenidge says is true (I am, to put it mildly, skeptical), then I would venture to say that she has some sort of legal recourse. However, I suspect what happened with her is similar to what occurred with a Jennifer Finney Boylan in that they merely wanted to sit at the cool kids table.

I did not know who else had signed that letter. I thought I was endorsing a well meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming. I did know Chomsky, Steinem, and Atwood were in, and I thought, good company.

The consequences are mine to bear. I am so sorry.

— Jennifer Finney Boylan 🐕 (@JennyBoylan) July 7, 2020

I feel as though I am in an alternate universe when I am siding with the likes of former president Barack Obama (who decried "wokeness" as POTUS even before it was called "wokeness") and Noam friggin Chomsky. 

As always, Dave "Iowhawk" Burge sums it up best.

Noam Chomsky was a Cambodian Genocide denier who defended Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and today I learned cancel culture has gotten too wacky even for him

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 7, 2020

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