Kate Clanchy, Richard Dawkins and Priyamvada Gopal write about their experiences with cancellation.

In ASCII form, the page doesn't say whose writing starts where, but I think that Kate Clanchy's part starts with "I have no doubt that the critic," Richard Dawkins's part starts with "A university is a Socratic haven of free thought," and Priyamvada Gopal's part starts with "Let me be upfront."

I read the first part of Clanchy's book to see what the offense was about. She described physical and cultural traits of the various demographic groups of children she taught, mentioning differences that made an impression on her — but her only wish was to teach them all, not to judge them, and they appreciated that.

Maybe I understand how some people could look at that writing with a particular squint and see bigotry. What Clanchy wrote is not bigotry, but it has some superficial resemblance to certain expressions of bigotry. A racist might mention some of those same group characteristics as a build-up for a racist sneer at those children, and at their adult relatives. That would be real bigotry.

The error those cancellers made was to hype themselves into a hairtrigger state in which they look at something that superficially resembles bigotry, declare it to be real bigotry, and explode into hatred.

Clanchy warns that cancellation will someday drive someone to suicide. Sad to say, this has already happened. David Chappelle tells how his friend, trans comedienne Daphne Dwarman, was cancelled for supporting him, and killed herself from the pain. I would expect there are dozens more such instances.

I love Dawkins's point about the extreme contrast between progressive acceptance of transgenderism and condemnation of transracialism. The physical difference between the sexes is fundamental to reproduction; the physical difference between human racial groups is a matter of minor details that only occasionally have a substantial direct effect on living. In both cases we surround those physical differences with socially constructed roles. So why not let people identify as whatever racial groups they choose? Or invent new ones?

What about the right-wing cancellationism that Priyamvada Gopal reports? It operates using state power and financial influence. Left-wing cancellationism does not have state power or financial influence to work with, so it operates using hate mobs. They are both harmful to freedom of thought, but they look very different.