Despite Elon Musk’s claim that cancel culture is finished, it seems to be alive and well on university campuses. In two separate incidents, speakers were ejected from an Oxford Union debate about Israel and a 20 year old student took his own life after being cancelled by his peers. On Free Speech Nation Claire warned that a culture of intimidation is rife on campuses.
“Students are wary of speaking up in seminars and thinking aloud, because they’re terrified that if they fall foul of the orthodoxies of the day they will be isolated socially, politically and culturally. And so they withdraw and become less independent as thinkers. They say ‘I want to pass and get a good degree, what’s the answer?’. That is the death of intellectual enquiry.”