Part 7/14:
Between 2014 and 2022, FIRE documented over 1,000 attempts to punish or silence faculty—many universities, especially the most prestigious, became hotbeds of cancel culture. These efforts range from investigations to firing tenured professors—a development that fundamentally destabilizes academic freedom, which was once protected by tenure.
Professor Lukianoff compares this surge to historical abuses like the Sedition Act of 1798 and McCarthy-era witch hunts, which targeted dissent. Today, the scale and intensity are far greater, with efforts often driven from both the political left and right.