Only off topic if you are happy with a mob controlling what you read.
The new censorship is different from traditional “banned” or “challenged” lists because a younger, much more active crowd is behind it:
Most victims [of Cancel Culture] were targeted by race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender activists, usually over matters that would surprise most readers. Some accept oblivion; others rewrite their books. Science fiction has been hit by “Woke zombies” too: “They inhibit free extrapolation and free speech through aggressive gatekeeping and social and professional ostracism, inspiring fearful writers to self-censor,” writes one author. Dissecting the controversies over books attacked in 2019, Krishdee Dismon captures a torrent of steaming resentment, much of it from people who have not read the books.
News, “Books: Cancel Culture as an invisible army of censors ” at Mind Matters News
Some demand that Random House Cancel best-selling atheist Richard Dawkins’s books. Even ideas as fashionable as Darwinism are not safe.
But some are fighting back: Many writers and artists are beginning to speak out and take action, recognizing that sharing the cost of speaking up reduces its burden:
The first step in fighting the Cancel Culture that is infesting the book industry, veterans say, is to refuse to issue, demand, or listen to groveling apologies. The recent exposure of social media Cancel Culture bully Chrissy Teigen may start a trend. If what Teigen did exposes her to legal action, other social media trolls will be duly warned. Whether she is sorry for what she did is her own business, not the public’s…
● Best-selling science fiction author Jon Del Arroz forced WorldCon 76 (a huge science fiction convention) to pay compensation, not just issue an apology, for banning him and tarring him as a racist with no real evidence: “The ban came about when Del Arroz asked Worldcon for security measures because he feared for his safety due to the mob-like attacks on him and his family from industry insiders.” (June 5, 2021) He had been targeted by social justice warriors for some time due to Incorrect views.
● A University of Washington AI notable, Pedro Domingos, was threatened with Cancelation when he questioned “ideological litmus tests” in his discipline. He not only sidelined the well-known industry bully who was targeting him and his university but he published a list of Fifteen Strategic Principles for beating back Cancel Culture.
News, “Books: The first step in fighting Cancel Culture ” at Mind Matters News
Malicious envy was always out there but before social media it could rarely assemble so large a mob. But that’s a challenge, not a prophecy.
We ID types can help fend them off. We are used to fighting Cancel Culture.
You may also wish to read: Comedy: An endangered art form in the Age of Rage
and
In Big Tech World: the journalist as censor, hit man, and snitch. Glenn Greenwald looks at a disturbing trend in media toward misrepresentation as well as censorship.