The good news is that my last column in this space is not about “cancel culture.” Well, almost. I agree with some of the critics that it’s a little nuts to say I’ve just been “canceled,” sent into oblivion and exile for some alleged sin. I haven’t. I’m just no longer going to be writing for a magazine that has every right to hire and fire anyone it wants when it comes to the content of what it wants to publish...
What has happened, I think, is relatively simple: A critical mass of the staff and management at
New York Magazine and Vox Media no longer want to associate with me...They seem to believe, and this is increasingly the orthodoxy in mainstream media, that any writer not actively committed to
critical theory in questions of race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity is actively, physically harming co-workers merely by existing in the same virtual space. Actually
attacking, and even
mocking, critical theory’s ideas and methods, as I have done
continually in
this space, is therefore out of sync with the values of Vox Media. That, to the best of my understanding, is why I’m out of here...
...maybe it’s worth pointing out that “conservative” in my case means that I have passionately
opposed Donald J. Trump and pioneered marriage equality, that I support legalized drugs, criminal-justice reform, more redistribution of wealth, aggressive action against climate change, police reform, a realist foreign policy, and laws to protect transgender people from discrimination. I was one of the first journalists in established media to come out. I was a major and early supporter of Barack Obama. I intend to vote for Biden in November. It seems to me that if this conservatism is so foul that many of my peers are embarrassed to be working at the same magazine, then I have no idea what version of conservatism could ever be tolerated....
