“A good sign as to whether there is free speech is, is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? If that is the case, we have free speech.” Elon Musk (2022)
I strongly support initiatives that advocate free speech in general and academic freedom in particular. Given that a Marxist student group has recently tried to enact Cancel Culture at the Freie Universität Berlin, this support seems especially important. Cancel Culture is not a new phenomenon and has been observed whenever groups try to silence free speech in a society; the struggle sessions of Maoist China are just one of many examples of cancel culture. Irrespective of its past occurrences, cancel culture is a serious problem and should not be tolerated. It is intimidating faculty, students, and administrative staff alike and is unbecoming of a liberal society.
Cancel culture in Maoist China
A valuable initiative that speaks out against cancel culture and supports academic freedom of speech is the Netzwerk Wissenschaftsfreiheit. My encounter with students trying to enact cancel culture is documented here: https://www.netzwerk-wissenschaftsfreiheit.de/presse/
Source of image: https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-Maoist-struggle-session
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