Cancel Culture Fear: People Who Disagree Passionately Should Be Able to Work Together

It’s good for a laugh. And lots of people are snickerin g at Josh Hawley’s essa y in the New York Post. “Senator Josh Hawley claims to have been silenced; he makes the claim from the front page of the New York Post.”

In my reading of events, Hawley has merited the pushback from his critics. (We’ll get to that in a minute.) But it would be wrong to start writing off concerns about “cancellation” just because they can be put to cynical use. I would bet millions of people are starting to worry about cancellation as a tool of political control and punishment, and it’s important to understand the nature of our objections to cancel culture and what politicians can and can’t address about it.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Cancel Culture

It’s good for a laugh. And lots of people are snickerin g at Josh Hawley’s essa y in the New York Post. “Senator Josh Hawley claims to have been silenced; he makes the claim from the front page of the New York Post.”

In my reading of events, Hawley has merited the pushback from his critics. (We’ll get to that in a minute.) But it would be wrong to start writing off concerns about “cancellation” just because they can be put to cynical use. I would bet millions of people are starting to worry about cancellation as a tool of political control and punishment, and it’s important to understand the nature of our objections to cancel culture and what politicians can and can’t address about it.