According to pieces in Politico and the New York Times, as well as countless posts across social media, we are seeing a “new McCarthyism” in the form of speech crackdowns and viewpoint discrimination on campus and elsewhere. Indeed, donors have threatened to pull funding; employers have blacklisted students for their views; and student groups have faced backlash for their statements.

But this atmosphere has been “situation normal” on campus since at least 2017. The only thing different about our current moment is that the tables have turned. Critics who once claimed either that Cancel Culture doesn’t exist — or that it is just “accountability” or “consequence” culture — are lamenting the problem now that it’s their side suffering those consequences.

But rather than say, “I told you so,” I’d happily welcome this new awareness. That is, if it weren’t for some critics’ seeming determination to act as though Cancel Culture is essentially new, reflecting their complete ignorance of the stark evidence of how long it’s been around and how bad it has been.

[Are they kidding with “new McCarthyism”? They spent the pandemic years practically URGING McCarthyist tactics on dissenters to the government regulators. People lost jobs, had their public forums curtailed, and sometimes worse for questioning policies like shutdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements. Now that those rules are being only lightly applied to their allies, suddenly the US media is shocked, SHOCKED at the consequences of their previous actions and endorsements of punishing speech and debate. — Ed]