Illiberal Attacks Harm Diversity
November 26, 2021
It seems as though for every bigot and conspiracy theorist who took license from Trump there was a self-styled "anti-racist" who took the same license in the other direction. Case in point is Julia Carrie Wong's derisive jeremiad against the inchoate University of Austin project ("‘Free speech warriors’ founded an anti-woke college. But they’re keeping their tenured day jobs").
Wong is dismissive of the idea that freedom of expression is under attack in the public sphere, claiming that since targeted individuals are still able to work it's unimportant. But she is wrong: ganging up one's colleagues for character assassination campaigns is not acceptable behavior. It is simply mob bullying, reminiscent of Maoist struggle sessions. The pretense that these attacks are no big deal (this author dismisses them as "heart-breakingly modest") is dishonest gaslighting. Those who engage in and justify them should be ashamed of themselves.
Wong is correct in one point: the damage of these attacks is not primarily to their famous targets. Rather it is to the next generation whose opinions the illiberals seek to suppress. If they can cow the sharks, so they think, the minnows will fall in line. Such acts do nothing for the marginalized groups they claim to support. On the contrary, they discourage diversity and kill creativity, leaving us all the poorer.