On Monday, Jennifer Kabbany, Editor of The College Fix, sat down (virtually) for an interview with The Cornell Review to discuss The Fix’s new cancel culture database, and Cornell’s ranking on it. The full interview was published on The Joe Silverstein Podcast, available above. Below are some highlights:
SILVERSTEIN: What inspired The College Fix to launch this database?
KABBANY: Being a daily news website focused on higher education, we were constantly reporting on these examples of censorship, suppression, and outright cancellation on college campuses across the nation. It was coming fast and furious, at least one, two, or three of these types of stories every week, and it almost became so repetitive that we were losing track of the scope and magnitude of the problem. So we decided to create a one-stop shop database so we can quantify, remember, and track everything that has been targeted or suppressed over the last several years in higher education.
SILVERSTEIN: [Cancel culture targets] really anyone who does not conform with this neo-Marxist agenda. What is your view on the Cornell Republicans President who was physically attacked on campus after the election of President Trump in 2016?
KABBANY: This incident that occured in 2016 is pretty extreme and troubling. To be actually physically assaulted on an Ivy League campus for being a moderate Republican, it just is a reminder of the violence and vitrial over the Trump election, and it should have been more widely condemned on the campus as a whole. I remember at the time there was a collective shrug for the most part among administrators. The incident speaks more to the intolerance of the Left. It’s another example of how any deviation from their viewpoint, agenda, or opinion is quickly attacked, either verbally, or through policy, or in this instance which thankfully is rare – actual physical assault.
SILVERSTEIN: Is it [Cancel Culture] reversible?
KABBANY: We have to continue to fight the good fight for the rights that so many people fought and died for. The First Amendment is one of the most important rights that holds America as the greatest nation on the planet. And so, if we don’t fight to keep it, we will lose it, and we already are losing it, and it’s only going to get worse.
The interview is available in its entirety above, or here.
