Meet my 'Canceling of the American Mind' co-author

23-year-old wunderkind Rikki Schlott

Me and Rikki

I am sure the question has occurred to some of you: Why would a then-47-year-old established writer (me) decide to team up with a then-21-year-old journalist (Rikki Schlott) on his next book? The short answer is because she’s brilliant, cares deeply about both the law and culture of free speech, and we complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I am a wild over-writer and she is a master at concision. I can get lost in data and she remembers how to communicate it. And my perspective, after 22 years at FIRE, sometimes leads me to forget how much is entirely new territory to younger readers.

The book is “The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution” which comes out on October 17^th. It documents the rise of Cancel Culture after 2014, shows how it serves as a cheap way of “winning arguments without winning arguments,” and offers potential solutions. 

The longer answer is that Rikki, who dropped out of NYU in 2020, reached out to me as a journalist for the New York Post with an observation about my book with Jonathan Haidt, “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation For Failure”. She suggested that maybe the challenge of Covid would be the thing that, as she put it “un-coddled” her generation, or as I would put it, gave them an empowering sense of self-efficacy in the face of adversity. While she jokes that she may have been overly optimistic, I think the jury is still out as, surely, there are some young people out there who did feel like they rose to—and overcame—a real challenge in those very difficult years. She was clearly an extraordinarily talented writer, so we at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) offered her a fellowship in our research department. 

After about a year working for us, I decided she would be the perfect partner to co-author a follow up to “The Coddling of the American Mind.” After all, “Coddling” was written by two Gen-X-ers, but was disproportionately concerned with the terrible mental health outcomes of Gen-Z women like Rikki. But, as I was thinking about it, I realized that, in the face of overwhelming evidence, there were still people claiming that Cancel Culture was not even real or was some elaborate right-wing hoax. Of course, there is no doubt Cancel Culture does come from both the right and left, is very real and, from everything I’ve learned through my work at FIRE, is happening at a historic level on campus. So instead of writing a pure follow-up to “Coddling,” I proposed we write something that explains what Cancel Culture is and shows how it's part of a larger rhetorical strategy that has no chance of ever getting us closer to the truth but is used to “win” cheap victories over opponents.

Working with Rikki has been absolutely delightful. We make a great team, I am proud to have gotten to work with her, and I see great things in her future.

In our book, what, besides the chapters exclusively about higher education, represented the most distressing trends in Cancel Culture to you?

Selfishly as a journalist, it's our journalism chapter. Starting my career in the post-2020 era meant I walked into an industry in shambles. The likes of Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi, among others, had already been squeezed out of premiere publications—or, in the case of Glenn Greenwald and Matt Yglesias, had even been pushed out of outlets they founded themselves.

I really worry about what this precedent has done to the next generation of journalists like myself. I'd be perfectly happy to find a home in a newsroom that leans left, though the level of unhinged hostility directed towards ideological outliers left me feeling that more right-leaning publications were the place to go, lest I waltz straight into a hostile work environment (That said, I couldn't be happier at the New York Post).

That sort of partisan sorting of the very institutions that are meant to sort fact and fiction presents a frightening danger: echo chambers filled with confirmation bias, rather than newsrooms filled with competing ideas, are being tasked with informing the rest of the country about its goingson.

Rikki’s cat, Lola, perched atop a row of “The Canceling of the American Mind” hardcovers.

Tell readers the story of how we first met:

In retrospect it was pretty optimistic, but one of my first articles for the Post was an op-ed about how the pandemic could possibly "uncoddle" Gen Z. Naturally, I reached out to Greg for an interview after reading “The Coddling of the American Mind” while a college student. It was a spot-on analysis of what I saw firsthand as a student at NYU and a member of Gen Z.

Our phone interview for that article made clear that we share many values—particularly a commitment to free speech—and I am very grateful that Greg asked me to join FIRE as a fellow soon after. And now, a couple years on, I'm even more thrilled that we've joined up to get this book out into the world!

What brings you to the cause of freedom of speech? 

In the depths of lockdown during the pandemic, I decided to take a leave of absence from NYU while (very expensive) lectures were still being held over Zoom. That's when I dug into finally reading the books I wanted to read, rather than those assigned to me. Top of the list was John Stuart Mill's “On Liberty.”

That's when I had a "holy sh*t" moment—and the philosophical value of free speech finally clicked in my mind. I realized just how much I'd taken for granted as an American living in the 21st century who has never known anything other than robust free speech protections. And that realization clarified for me just how fragile and profound that inheritance was. How could I not join in defense of it?

Tell us about your unconventional trajectory with regards to higher education.

My NYU leave of absence turned into another leave of absence and then a third, before NYU finally said come back or leave (fair enough). By then I'd already managed to get a foot in the door with my journalism career, and I realized what I learn in my day-to-day on the job is an education like no other.

SHOT FOR THE ROAD

Enjoy this video of Lola distracting Rikki while she (tries to!) record takes of the Canceling audiobook!