In this Substack Live, I expand on my recent essay about cancel culture and moral progress. I argue that cancel culture wasn’t just morally questionable. It was instead, a strategic failure that atrophied the muscles of persuasion, leaving the left unprepared to resist authoritarian escalation.
I trace why moral progress is real but fragile, how “moral accounting” distorts our sense of allies and enemies, and why every changed mind should be celebrated, not condemned. I warn against the trap of political violence—a gift to fascists, just as the Reichstag fire was to the Nazis—and explain why centrists are paralyzing themselves with false equivalence.
Finally, I make the case for the politics of addition: imperfect allies, broader coalitions, and a renewed emphasis on persuasion over coercion. Democracy is a coalition sport — and if we want to preserve it, we must remember how to play.
