Besides killing cats, curiosity can also cancel commentators. In an age where language is aggressively policed and taboos continually proliferate, writers who stray just a bit too far from accepted opinion or ask one too many questions can find themselves shut out from polite society. Although the names of most cancelation victims vanish without a trace, there are a few with enough talent and stubbornness to continue writing in spite of it all.
One such writer is the British-American writer John Derbyshire, once a frequent contributor for publications like National Review and the Wall Street Journal, but then dropped because of his arguments on race. Specifically, Derbyshire noted the alarming rates of violence and dysfunction among black Americans and felt compelled to push back against falsehoods obscuring this fact. Like any good writer, he backed up his claims with solid evidence and avoided unfair generalizations, but America, particularly during the Obama administration, was not ready to have this discussion.
