Author Archive: Greg Lukianoff

“ANYONE WHO IS OPPOSED TO SHUTTING PEOPLE UP BY FORCE IS BOUND TO BE FACED WITH ARGUMENTS THAT SUPPRESSING SPEECH ISN’T SO BAD AFTER ALL. But these arguments were considered and rejected decades ago, and The War On Words is a perfect handy guide on how to answer them, by a hero and heroine of free expression.” – Steven Pinker

FREE SPEECH DEFENDERS ARE FAMILIAR WITH COMMON “ZOMBIE ARGUMENTS” (ARGUMENTS THAT JUST WON’T DIE) AGAINST FREE SPEECH: e.g. “words are violence,” “hate speech ≠ free speech,” & “free speech is rightwing.” In The War On Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail (due out July 1) Nadine Strossen and I will hopefully debunk those pesky fallacies once and for all.

CANCEL CULTURE VS. MCCARTHYISM: THE DATA IS IN — Cancel Culture is happening on a historic scale, part 5

“The best way to compare McCarthyism to Cancel Culture on campus is by finding a source of data that was gathered at the same time McCarthyism was going on, in order to compare it to the data we have today. And thankfully there was a massive 1955 study by Paul Lazarsfeld that covered the number of professors dismissed during McCarthyism. According to that data, approximately 100 professors were targeted and 62 were fired during this period, either for being communists or members of the Communist Party.

“Now, compare that figure to the number of professors who have been fired on campus since the beginning of the Age of Cancel Culture in 2014. In the last decade, FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire database has logged almost 1,300 campaigns to get scholars punished for their First Amendment-protected speech. Nearly two-thirds of those campaigns succeeded, leading to censorship, suspensions, demotions, resignations, and even mandatory administrative training (remember: this is disciplinary training in response to protected speech). But to compare things more directly: From 2014-2024 more than 200 scholars ended up being fired or forced out of their positions for their thoughts and opinions.

“That’s more than triple the contemporaneous estimate of the number of communist professors fired, and more than double the estimate of professors fired overall, during McCarthyism.”

‘THE CANCELING OF THE AMERICAN MIND’ PAPERBACK HITS SHELVES APRIL 29, AND AVAIL FOR PRE-ORDER TODAY: “A powerful and prescient book that is more relevant than ever.” — Steven Pinker.

MORE TIPS FOR BEING NON-PARTISAN IN A PARTISAN AGE: It ain’t easy, it can be exhausting, and you’re not always going to get everything right. But you have to keep trying.