The Harpers Magazine rolled out an open letter signed by more than hundred writers, poets, journalists and scholars including J.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky.
The letter argues that the "needed reckoning" amid "protests for racial and social justice" has "intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments."
It further states, "The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted," and that there is "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."
Without citing any specific examples, the letter reveals, "editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a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."
“This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation,” it adds.
