Shounak, I had mixed feelings about this piece of yours.
One the one hand, I strongly agree with you that extremists from both the "pro-cancel culture" and "anti-cancel culture" factions are getting out of control. I was pleased to see you cite "The Coddling of the American Mind," as I found a majority of the book to be absolutely refreshing.
(Here is my review of it)
One the other hand, I was very disheartened to read your weak arguments against John McWhorter and your even shakier arguments in favor of Robin DiAngelo. Although I'm sure there's plenty on which I'd disagree with McWhorter (as I'm slightly to the left of him, politically), his (and others') takedown of DiAngelo's Kool-Aid is long-overdue.
A big part of the reason why much of the backlash to the "hyperwoke" crowd has been so intense is due to the fallaciousness of their worldview...and well as how much of the mainstream media seems to defer to their talking-points, by default. While I agree with you that the answer shouldn't be to become inverted caricatures of them (using diametrically-opposed ideological radicalism), their harmful worldviews do need to be countered and challenged with MORE SPEECH. I attempt to do this in my recent piece on the malleable references to "political correctness" that have manifested throughout our society:
