The forehead-slappingly stupid attempt to cancel Steven Pinker

What Pinker apparently has said, and is a popular opinion these days that I see all over the place, which some people see as extremely racist and others don&#x27;t, is that police killings being proportional to arrests is evidence against bias in using deadly violence, <i>given</i> there is an interaction in the first place.<p>It seems like a complete non sequitur to me, is the problem. Even with strict framing where you don&#x27;t look at&#x2F;think about bias in the arrests. One can imagine a world where anywhere from 0% to 100% of killings were justified, but regardless having the exact <i>same</i> number of deaths. The casualty number logically tells you <i>nothing</i> about whether any of the actions were appropriate or necessary.<p>So rightly or wrongly, it makes sense to me if a lot of people think nobody could be this obtuse and assume bad faith. Especially when, you know, it&#x27;s someone widely believed to be smart.

I commented about the coming cancellation of Steven Pinker 6 days ago, as it has been developing for a little bit on social media and follows several other campaigns to censor and oppress other professors: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23788095" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23788095</a>.<p>The charge of “scientific racism” leveled against Pinker is simply rhetorical warfare, waged using an emotionally charged term like “racism”. The pursuit of objective, quantitative, rational, scientific analysis is now under attack using this label. It is the mob burying their head in the sand, unwilling to yield when reality disagrees with their ideological stance. It is anti-science. But these days, even being objective and scientific is seen as offensive to the progressive mentality. And I mean this literally, as seen in the recent Smithsonian chart that they took down (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newsweek.com&#x2F;smithsonian-race-guidelines-rational-thinking-hard-work-are-white-values-1518333" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newsweek.com&#x2F;smithsonian-race-guidelines-rationa...</a>).<p>Cancel culture isn’t a recent trend - there are entire websites dedicated to cancel culture on college campuses, such as <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thecollegefix.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thecollegefix.com&#x2F;</a>. Free thought, free inquiry, and open debate are under attack from those that want only their worldview to prevail. It is a direct threat to a free society and much has been written about it recently from Quillette (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quillette.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;07&#x2F;01&#x2F;on-steve-hsu-and-the-campaign-to-thwart-free-inquiry&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quillette.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;07&#x2F;01&#x2F;on-steve-hsu-and-the-campai...</a>) and Harper’s (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;harpers.org&#x2F;a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;harpers.org&#x2F;a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate&#x2F;</a>) and others.<p>I’m not sure how to fight back except to create direct consequences for those pursuing cancellation. Perhaps we need to shame and demand the firing of everyone who signs such letters, demanding censorship and cancellation of others.