Redacting Cancel Culture

The achievements, customs, and institutions of a society define culture. To build culture, we must embrace challenges. But when challenging ideas are shut out or 'canceled' from public discourse, the collective health of humanity suffers. Engaging with unpopular content and ideas isn't just our responsibility as leaders; it's our duty as citizens of a free society. To embrace that which challenges us is to embrace growth. And the pursuit of understanding not just the voices of our enemies, but the point of view of the storytellers brave enough to give them a platform, is an essential precondition to becoming more thoughtful, well-rounded leaders in society.?

This story about a provocative documentary that got ‘canceled’ not because of the content, but the identity behind the lens of the storyteller, really spoke to me as I reflect on the state of our culture.?

The “The UnRedacted” produced by Meg Smaker generated some initial controversy for its view that we should humanize jihadists and understand the unique struggles and motivations that enabled their radicalization. After premiering to huge acclaim at Sundance, its momentum was quickly halted as keyboard warriors accused the filmmaker – who is white – of racially appropriating the stories of her mostly-Arab subjects. The tragic irony is that the cornerstone of her approach was giving people, who society had cast off as unsavable, a platform to tell their own stories.?

This cancel culture overreaction ultimately denied audiences a complex and multi-dimensional view of our modern-day threats. This hurts our moral fabric, our shared sense of purpose, and undermines our national security by robbing us of the opportunity to understand some of the preconditions of terror. It wasn’t until a?podcast with Sam Harris?and a?feature in the New York Times?that people started talking about this documentary again. Until then, Ms. Smaker was ostracized.?

The notion that you cannot be part of a solution for a certain community unless you are a part of that community is fundamentally opposed to the belief that individuals are born free and with dignity.?

This also could have been personal. Had cancel culture been this widespread just 10 years ago, instead of being invited to speak at the?White House?about Gen Next’s private-sector-led counterterrorism work, we'd have been canceled.?

We ran into the fire when the threat profile against our nation changed, and we needed the ingenuity of bold private sector leaders to identify solutions to keep our homeland safe and evolve the way we look at solutions to complex threats. The most powerful way to do that was to amplify the voices of former extremists to understand the home-grown threats of radicalization and thwart them.?

The duty to engage with tough ideas and lift the people boldly pursuing them to move our society forward is timeless, but most important to defend when it’s under fire.

Cancellation efforts are usually about uncomfortable topics. They might be things that you don’t think are important. But through embracing discomfort, we achieve growth. Through cultivating diversity, we spark innovation. Uncomfortable ideas and conversations deserve our defense whether we like or dislike them.?

Remember, we must stand shoulder to shoulder even with those we disagree with, otherwise, the ideas and conversations that the cancel culture mob will come for next will certainly be yours. Our duty as leaders isn’t to subscribe or unsubscribe when it’s convenient. It’s a willingness to do the work to understand the world from many different lenses and lead through and beyond the noise.