The problem of cancel culture isn’t that people lose their jobs if they say something that crosses a line.
It’s that people become unwilling to say innocuous and reasonable things for fear of that happening.
That chilling effect eliminates entire topics of conversation.
It’s that people become unwilling to say innocuous and reasonable things for fear of that happening.
That chilling effect eliminates entire topics of conversation.
I do think the power that Twitter mobs have is overstated 99% of the time.
But if that 1% of the time your life is flipped upside down and you no longer have a career, the downside risk of tweeting something controversial outweighs the upside by… a lot.
But if that 1% of the time your life is flipped upside down and you no longer have a career, the downside risk of tweeting something controversial outweighs the upside by… a lot.
I’ve intentionally structured things in my life so that I know I’ll be fine no matter what Twitter mobs may try to do, and there’s a meaningful psychological shift when you’re not living in fear of potential mobs anymore.
And genius comes in being willing to be wrong.
If you can’t take any intellectual risks you’ll never discover anything new.
If you don’t allow Newton to spend years working on alchemy, you may not get the laws of physics, either.
If you can’t take any intellectual risks you’ll never discover anything new.
If you don’t allow Newton to spend years working on alchemy, you may not get the laws of physics, either.
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