The signers of the anti-anti canceling letter seem to have precious little empathy for the ordinary people who have been hounded and bullied. Instead, their letter is primarily dedicated to the proposition that its signers are the only real victims—and anyone who disagrees with them is secretly a bigot.

Freedom flows from the expansion of the “circle of empathy”—the recognition of other people as fellow humans who deserve the same rights you enjoy, the sense that “if this can happen to you, it can happen to me.” The anti-anti-cancel position represents a contraction of that circle. They only deign to recognize the fellow humanity of a very narrow ideological in-group. This is a movement that is only about power, and only for a narrow clique.

But at least we now know that those of us who care about free speech have the support of a lot of prominent and influential people.

Because in a civilized society, that is one of the jobs of powerful people: to use their power to protect the rights of others.