The Authors Signing the Open Letter Against “Cancel Culture” are Missing the Point

Instead of vilifying a woman, here is Salman Rushdie, one of the signators. Fair’s fair.

Harper’s Magazine published an open letter signed by 150 writers, activists, and academics, including Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, Martin Amis, and the ever-uncancellable J.K. Rowling, condemning the brutal justice of cancel culture.

In fairness to the letter, and very much in its spirit, it makes some good points. In general, it is a warning with which reasonable minds could argue and it identifies the social and political strife the planet seems to be going through.

But following the letters championing of “The free exchange of information and ideas,” it claims such ideas are being restricted, it is worth us looking at some of what they have failed to consider and why. And it might be easier to start with the why.

“We, through our craft, hold the powerful to account. Or at least that’s what we tell ourselves.”

The “we” the letter refers to are artists, journalists, and obviously, writers. The thing about these people in general (and I apply this to myself and the many artists, journalists, and writers I have the pleasure and displeasure of knowing) is we all believe ourselves to be outsiders. Those creating fiction build their realities outside…