This brings us to the second harm related to “cancel culture”: the replacement of understanding with judgmentalism and forgiveness with condemnation.

Daring to think out loud means daring to be wrong. And if there are two groups who ought to be treated more generously, it should surely be those born into (in some respects) less enlightened times (who, besides, cannot defend themselves on account of being dead) and those who are immature by virtue of not yet being an adult.

A high-school cheerleader was kicked off the University of Tennessee cheer team and forced to withdraw from the school after a Snapchat video was posted online of her using the N-word at age 15. The teen, who had just passed her driving test, recorded a message for friends saying, “I can drive, n*****s!” In Scotland, the Glasgow City Council recently identified a statue of David Livingstone, a renowned anti-slavery missionary and explorer, as a candidate for removal after its 119-page report on “problematic” city sites identified Livingstone as having worked in a cotton mill from age ten that “likely” used West Indian cotton.

The examples are endless.