The storied career of James Webbs as the second administrator of NASA (responsible for the Apollo missions) led to the naming of the space telescope in his honor. Now, however, he is the subject of a cancel campaign to remove his name after professors accused him of being anti-gay. That cancel campaign also now includes a black astrophysicist, Hakeem Oluseyi, who published a study exonerating Webb. He is reportedly being banned from leading journals after finding no evidence to support the claim. Regardless of the ultimate conclusions that one can reach on the Webb controversy, there should be universal concern over the growing intolerance for opposing views in academic institutional and journals. …

I can understand that some may contest those findings. However, what followed was a cancel campaign that shifted to those who opposed it, particularly Oluseyi. Prescod-Weinstein insisted that NASA assigned Oluseyi to “impugn” her concerns and to provide a “shield” for Webb.

Others did not care what the investigation found. The New York Times reported that the Britain’s Royal Astronomical Society declared that “no astronomer who submits a paper to its journals should type the words ‘James Webb.’” The American Astronomical Society, and the publications Nature, New Scientist and Scientific American have also reportedly declared the case closed against Webb.

Oluseyi was soon also tagged and said that he was been unable to have letters published in the journal that attempted to point out the allegedly flawed evidence cited by Prescod-Weinstein and others. So, not only are journals declaring the matter effectively closed, but they will not allow readers to see opposing views.

[Leftism always eventually arrives at fascism. It’s the inevitable result of having their arguments fail. F.A. Hayek brilliantly explained this in The Road to Serfdom. — Ed]