The Cancel Culture Panic: Understanding How an American Obsession Went Global (with Adrian Daub)

You can't say anything these days! Especially not on a college campus, and especially not if you're a white man. For evidence, please enjoy this loose assemblage of sixth-hand anecdotes with no detail or reporting to back it up. This is the discursive form that Caitlin and Trent brought Stanford professor Adrian Daub on to discuss, described in his 2024 book, The Cancel Culture Panic: How an American Obsession Went Global.

Resources

The Cancel Culture Panic: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-cancel-culture-panic-how-an-american-obsession-went-global-adrian-daub/7c3bcd17c60f4e52?ean=9781503640849&next=t

Academic paper on Caitlin's cancellation story: https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/PLSA/article/download/5257/4885/10012

In Bed With The Right podcast https://gender.stanford.edu/podcasts

Assorted cancel culture discourse 2020-2022

https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/10/new-puritans-mob-justice-canceled/619818/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/steven-pinker-will-be-just-fine/614323/

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/09/steven-pinker-wont-be-cancelled-but-you-could-be/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opinion/campus-speech-cancel-culture.html

https://www.motherjones.com/recharge/2020/07/factually-flawed-anti-pinker-letter/

Caitlin's answer to the MJ thing https://c-moriah-green.medium.com/bad-news-about-that-pro-pinker-mother-jones-piece-it-doesnt-make-any-fucking-sense-5efb27a72495

Cancel Culture is Over

https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-woke-failed

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/04/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-democrats-voters-maine.html

We're fixing it with the help of our wealthy donors

https://www.chronicle.com/article/meet-the-donors-funding-the-civil-dialogue-boom-at-colleges

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/15/harvard-donors-viewpoint-diversity/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/university-intellectual-freedom-center-creates-100000609.html

https://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/documents/steven-pinker-im-pinned-between-cancel-culture-and-trump-002.pdf

Thank you Mr. Trump BUT

https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/why-im-excited-about-the-white-houses-proposal-for-a-higher-ed-compact/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/opinion/democrats-trump-midterms-future.html

Charlie Kirk Acts

https://wpln.org/post/tennessees-charlie-kirk-act-bans-student-walkouts-protects-conservative-speakers/

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2026/04/21/tenn-passes-charlie-kirk-act-defending-campus-speakers