Against the cancel culture: US intellectuals want to found a university – knowledge

It was, of course, a daring and extremely provocative statement at an elite US university: In the fall of 2020, the geophysicist Dorian Abbot, assistant professor at the University of Chicago, demanded that academic qualifications be the only means of admission to study and the employment of scientists and researchers Women scientists should decide. If this principle were followed in a conscientious and fair manner, he said, it should also serve the interests of less privileged groups. The usual Twitter mob followed, allegedly demanding social justice. Abbot survived the cancel storm, among other things, because his university president Robert Zimmer, an exceptional figure, stood in front of him. But last month the incident caused the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston Abbot to revise an invitation to the geophysicist; Abbott was supposed to give the prestigious public lecture on the climate crisis at the university.