#300: A Tale of Cancellation, with Meg Smaker

I admit I was starting to waver recently about whether my monthly contribution to Making Sense wouldn't be better put to use buying mosquito nets for children in Africa. Blame it on his promotion of effective altruism, perhaps. And that the last several guests didn't really say anything that struck me as urgent--or even necessary.

However, this interview with cancelled filmmaker Meg Smaker convinced me that supporting Sam Harris is still the right thing to do.

Not just because her cancellation was clearly done by a few bad actors of bad faith for self-aggrandizing and self-enriching reasons. But also because I firmly believe that their core motivation--that only members of any minority group should be allowed to tell stories about that group--is such an idiotic and nefarious idea that it could literally make racism increase in America, and harm virtually every member of the respective minority populations that they belong to.

We need to be able to tell the stories of the Other, period. White writers need to be able to include characters of color in their stories. Female documentarians need to be able to report on male subjects. Muslims need to be able to write about non-muslims.

Anyone who can't understand the self-evident truth of this isn't trying very hard. Or maybe their reason has been coopted by their misguided attempt to force a place for themselves on the page or on the screen... a place that their own talents weren't able to win on their own merits.