The letter itself was discussed at <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23759283" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23759283</a>
The letter
<a href="https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/" rel="nofollow">https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/</a>
<i>> We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.</i><p>All fine and good, but the authors need to specifically say what topics good faith disagreement can be had on or this is just special pleading on behalf of their particular point on the ideological spectrum.
My feeling is that the origin of attack on allies (people largely on your side who also partly disagree or speak in a tone-deaf way) stems from the broader hostility between left and right. That has made progress impossible, and faced with frustration at the lack of communication or any hint of compromise, people lash out at those who should be on their own side. At least they're listening.<p>I don't like it either, and I don't think it's helpful, but I understand the frustration. Fragmentation has long been a problem for progressivism. There are so many injustices, and since each happens to a group that is marginalized, the only way forward is unity. We have to back each other. Especially since the system is designed to be conservative: it requires multiple branches to pass legislation, any of whom can halt it, sometimes by a minority vote. About the only significant progress ever comes only from the Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservative judges who will often prescribe a legislative solution. Which they know won't happen.<p>People should be able to disagree publicly and loudly with their allies. But when faced with an opposition who will oppose anything you say solely because you say it (even reversing their own past positions to do so), you face an impossible dilemma. You need unity, but can't reach it without disagreeing publicly. And when you despair from the fact that the system is stacked against you and you perceive that nothing you do will help, lashing out at any pretext at least feels like some kind of accomplishment.<p>We need to fight against that impulse, but we won't do that without identifying the cause. And I believe that the cause stems from the right wing intransigence that has long since past any sincere ideological disagreement into active hostility and denial of reality. If we can't win fights against people who deny well-recognized science on many fronts, and promote conspiracy theories not just at the fringes but at all top levels of leadership, how can we actually win anything?
“Rowling, whose beliefs on transgender rights have recently seen scores of Harry Potter fans distance themselves from her [...]”<p>That’s an understatement. She’s effectively canceled for rest of her writing career for even thinking what she ended up writing.<p>Looking forward to the next chapter though - the best is yet to come.