J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and other authors sign open letter denouncing cancel culture

Big name authors, like J.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and others with a huge platform and millions of dollars' worth of book sales combined, have signed their name to an open letter published by Harper’s denouncing what they perceive as the trouble with cancel culture and the “restriction of debate.”“The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted,” the letter warns. “While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”

I was very proud to sign this letter in defence of a foundational principle of a liberal society: open debate and freedom of thought and speech.https://t.co/noh8VRHMyN

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 7, 2020

“It is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought,” the letter continues, before itemizing some “hasty and disproportionate punishments” handed down to writers that the signatories feel were unjust.Some of these “punishments” include, “Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes.”[video_embed id='1973112']RELATED: J.K. Rowling under fire for anti-trans tweets[/video_embed]Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem, Malcolm Gladwell, and Martin Amis are also notable signatories to the letter.The letter immediately drew the scrutiny and ire of literature fans and bookworms across social media, with many pointing out that several of rich and powerful names on that list, who come with a massive platform, are not used to having their viewpoints challenged and therefore long for the days when they could say whatever inflammatory comment they wanted without rebuke.

#CancelCulture doesn’t really exist. It’s a myth created by people who have been used to saying whatever they want without being challenged and are now surprised when there are consequences to their words. #Rowling is still a very rich bestselling author with a massive platform.

— Natasha Devon ? (@_NatashaDevon) July 8, 2020

Others pointed out that many of the signatories have the liberty and power to say whatever they want and often, so their perceived silencing doesn’t even exist.

Can we ask everyone who complains about cancel culture to explain the opinions or perspectives they feel they’re silenced from sharing? I have a feeling it’s all things they’re known (and paid) for saying. Often.

— shon faye. (@shonfaye) July 8, 2020

Kerri Greenidge, a historian who signed her name to the letter, immediately tweeted after its publication that she didn’t endorse the letter and was asking Harper’s for a retraction.

I do not endorse this@Harpers letter. I am in contact with Harper's about a retraction

— Kerri Greenidge (@GreenidgeKerri) July 7, 2020

Author Jennifer Finney Boylan also tweeted that she had no idea what the letter was truly indicating when she signed it, and apologized, saying, “The consequences are mine to bear. I am so sorry.”

I did not know who else had signed that letter. I thought I was endorsing a well meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming. I did know Chomsky, Steinem, and Atwood were in, and I thought, good company.

The consequences are mine to bear. I am so sorry.— Jennifer Finney Boylan ? (@JennyBoylan) July 7, 2020

J.K. Rowling has been making waves in the news and on Twitter as of late, with her constant tirades and multi-part threads about sex and gender that many have called transphobic.This isn’t the first time Margaret Atwood has signed her name to an open letter: in 2018 The Handmaid’s Tale author added her name to an open letter addressed to the University of British Columbia, admonishing the university for firing novelist Stephen Galloway after he was accused and investigated for sexual assault against one of his students.Salman Rushdie famously had to go into hiding after a fatwa (a threat of death) was placed on his head in 1988 by the Ayatollah Khomeini for writing The Satanic Verses.[video_embed id='1990968']Before you go: Halle Berry bows out of pursuing a film role as a transgender man[/video_embed]