But I do find it interesting; almost everyone involved is saying something different from what they actually really mean.
1. Narrow vs wide range of accepted discourse
2. Left-tilted vs center-left range of accepted discourse
3. Lesser vs greater threshold for proof of guilt
4. [perceived] moral clarity and privilege-balancing vs [perceived] civility and logical rigor
In each case, "the letter" is more associated with the second option, while the culture it's responding to (and that dislikes the letter) is more associated with the first.
Maybe so. But it's clear which side touts which values more, even if they don't live up to them. (Hence, "perceived.")
(1) and (2) are the more veiled debates. Some people don't want to admit they're to the right of their interlocutor. Some people don't want to admit they want to narrow the window of accepted views.
a) is "cancel culture" real?
b) do you mean nobody should ever get fired?
c) what about Trump?
These topics aren't useful for actually hashing out the disagreement.
There's an obvious real phenomenon happening and people just want to frame it in a way that's more favorable to their views. This is just boring word games.
In truth everyone sometimes supports a firing. Some people more often, some less often, and for different reasons, and so on.
Some people get tricked into a "principled no-firing stance" that will eventually be revealed to have exceptions.
The sides engaged on this version of the "cancel" debate are left of center and do not support Trump or Republicans generally.
There are things to discuss here, but they don't advance the discussion of liberal institutions in any way.
But I do have rhetorical or logical quibbles with their stated position. And I hope I've kept my descriptions here neutral for the sake of good social science-y discussion.
Whether that's a feature or a bug is up to you, I guess.