Good News for the Cancelled Club – by Eric Rasmusen
Recently I decided write a letter to The Cancelled Club, the various people I ve met who ve been pestered by online mobs. Having been cancelled myself in 2003 and 2019, I ve tried to devote much of my time since I retired in 2021 to giving advice and comfort based on what I learned, as well as helping run the MIT Free Speech Alliance (MIT alumni, please join!). I put together most of my advice in Lessons for the Cancelled, published at Dorian Abbot s Heterodox STEM Substack.
Most comfort has to come personally, one-on-one or in meetings and conferences, but I wanted to write the letter because there have been quite a few free speech stories lately with happy endings. Keeping up one s morale is crucial to fighting the powerful. Even if your own case isn t going well, you can take comfort in seeing how well your friends are doing in our common fight against injustice. So I thought I d compile a list of good stories and send it out. Then I realized the list would make a good Substack. So I ll publish the letter here as well as send it out by email. This will be one of the rare open letters that isn t demanding anything and isn t signed by hundreds of people nobody cares about.
Professor Rasmussen carries on indefatigably. I’m sure the Indiana University provost and the other tiny minds behind his cancellation had no idea who they were taking on. And there are lots of heroes out there, as you’ll see in his letter.