Cancel culture efforts over extreme anti-Israel statements not worth it, WaPo writer argues

Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle recently called out some conservatives for arguing against what she believes to be wrongful "cancel culture" against students who have lost out on job opportunities and had offers rescinded as a result of their statements on the Hamas terrorist attacks in the wake of October 7. 

"Of course I understand why companies might be reluctant to hire students who think it’s OK to murder babies," she wrote. "But we must resist falling into the false binaries that distort the thinking of both the terrorists and the cancelers."

In an interview with Fox News Digital, McArdle added nuance to her argument, but remained firm in her belief that no matter how morally reprehensible an idea is, it is better to know what bad ideas people hold rather than make people too afraid to say them.

"Look, I identify as a person of the right, I'm more libertarian than socially conservative, but I still kind of identify in that broad camp," she said. "I understand very well why conservatives are mad, how much they have chafed under this feeling that there were people who, if they said the wrong thing, would do their level best to get them fired [and] deplatformed."

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McArdle also said she understands the desire by many on the right to participate in a tit-for-tat, but warned such tactics can also spiral into a "blood feud" very easily.

"I think they [progressives] have now realized that the room is a lot bigger than their lecture halls and that they are not the only people in it and in fact, they're not even the majority on a lot of issues," she said. "If they demand that the room have a veto over who gets to speak, they're more likely to be the targets than the beneficiaries of that demand."

"What the thing to do is to model what you want them to do, which is not to get them fired in vengeance, it is to show them like, look, 'We could do this, and we're not because this is a better way.'"

But, McArdle said in general, Americans should always be pushing for less cancelation and more tolerance in favor of the right to voice your opinion, because she believes society has a strong interest in a culture where people are free to speak their minds. 

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She also said it's important to define cancel culture, which she argued is not yelling at someone, calling their ideas terrible or asking how they could believe something that morally reprehensible.

"What cancel culture is, is when someone expresses an idea, you attempt to impose a penalty on them economically or socially," she said. "We have seen people, for example, removed from nonprofit boards, their friends won't speak to them and so forth, doing that, that is cancel culture."

"I'm not saying that you then can't have any opinion about who your friends are, who your employees are," she added. "I probably would not hire someone or become friends with someone who walked in with a swastika tattooed on their face. But that said, I think we should try to minimize that as much as possible."

Some university student groups, most notoriously 30 organizations at Harvard, suggested that the real blame for the rape of Israeli women and the murder of babies belonged to Israelis. The action prompted hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman to call for the release of the names of the people who signed on to the letter to prevent CEOs of major companies from hiring them.

"I'm not questioning the civil right of employers to hire whoever they want," McArdle told Fox News Digital. "Obviously, you have that right. That said, I think that in general, we all have an interest in having a culture that allows people the freedom to express ideas and debate ideas and argue ideas, even if those ideas are considered to be reprehensible."

"In fact, it's never popular ideas that need protection," she added. "It's always ideas that a lot of people consider really deeply wrong and offensive."

In a few instances, McArdle said it is appropriate for someone to lose their job or influence if they physically threaten others or speak on behalf of the company they work for in an unflattering way. 

"An example of that that's more recent would be something like the marketing executive at Bud Light, who not only decided to green-light an influencer campaign with a trans influencer that became controversial, but had gone on a podcast and basically kind of denigrated her customers," she said. "Well, you know … yes, you're getting fired if you say something that offends your customers and then you lose sales."

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Many don't agree, saying that even the idea of not fully condemning Hamas' horrific massacre is beyond the pale.

"I've spoken personally to families who have lost their family members in the most grotesque way imaginable, and these brave individuals are doing interviews," conservative writer Bethany Mandel told Fox News Digital. "So no one can play dumb and say that the information wasn't there. Hamas did a GoPro and they posted it on Telegram. They're proud of what they've done." 

McArdle emphasized the "better way" is allowing ideas that someone might "vehemently disagree with" or that they find "morally appalling" to be said because "we live in a big, diverse, pluralistic society."

"I think the right way to combat those ideas is with more ideas," she said.

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