But one difference between doxxing normal people versus doxxing “influential people” is that influential people typically have enough power to land on their feet when e.g. they lose a job.
It may decrease their influence substantially, though. I’ll quote at length from here. It’s not about doxxing per se, but it’s about cancellation attempts (which doxxing a heretic enables), and about arguments similar to the above:
If you’re a writer, artist or academic who has strayed beyond the narrow bounds of approved discourse, two consequences will be intimately familiar. The first is that it becomes harder to get a hearing about anything. The second is that if you do manage to say anything publicly — especially if you talk about the silencing — it will be taken as proof that you have not been silenced.
This is the logic of witch-ducking. If a woman drowns, she isn’t a witch; if she floats, she is, and must be dispatched some other way. Either way, she ends up dead.
The only counter to this is specific examples. But censorship is usually covert: when you’re passed over to speak at a conference, exhibit in a gallery or apply for a visiting fellowship, you rarely find out. Every now and then, however, the censors tip their hands.
And so, for everyone who says I can’t have been cancelled because they can still hear me, here’s the evidence.
The first time I know I was censored was even before my book criticising trans ideology came out in mid-2021. I had been asked to talk about it on the podcast of Intelligence Squared, a media company that, according to its website, aims to “promote a global conversation”. We had booked a date and time.
But as the date approached I discovered I had been dropped. When I asked why, the response was surprisingly frank: fear of a social-media pile-on, sponsors getting cold feet and younger staff causing grief. The CEO of Intelligence Squared is a former war correspondent who has written a book about his experiences in Kosovo. But at the prospect of platforming a woman whose main message is that humans come in two sexes, his courage apparently ran out.
Next came the Irish Times, my home country’s paper of record. Soon after my book came out a well-known correspondent rang me, said he had stayed up all night to finish it and wanted to write about it. He interviewed me, filed the piece, checked the quotes — and then silence. When I nudged by email, he said the piece had been spiked as it was going to press.
Sometime around then it was the BBC’s turn. I don’t know the exact date because I only found out months later, when I met a presenter from a flagship news programme. Such a shame you couldn’t come on the show, he said, to which I replied I had never been asked. It turned out that he had told a researcher to invite me on, but the researcher hadn’t, instead simply lying that I wasn’t available. I’ve still never been on the BBC to discuss trans issues.
Next came ABC, the Australian state broadcaster, which interviewed me for a radio show about religion and ethics. This time, when I nudged, I was told there had been “technical glitches” with the recording, but they would “love to revisit this one in the future”. They’ve never been back in touch. [… several more examples …]
Now, the author has a bestselling book, has been on dozens of podcasts, and now works for an advocacy organization that’s 100% behind her message (she’s not technically listed as a cofounder, but might as well be). She has certainly landed on her feet and has a decent level of reach; yet, clearly, if not for a bunch of incidents like the above—and, as she says, probably a lot more incidents for which she doesn’t have specific evidence—then she would have had much greater reach.
In Scott’s case… if we consider the counterfactual where there wasn’t a NYT article drawing such smears against Scott, then, who knows, maybe today some major news organizations (perhaps the NYT itself!) would have approached him for permission to republish some Slate Star Codex articles on their websites, perhaps specifically some of those on AI during the last ~year when AI became big news. Or offered to interview him for a huge audience on important topics, or something.
So be careful not to underestimate the extent of unseen censorship and cancellation, and therefore the damage done by “naming and shaming” tactics.
It may decrease their influence substantially, though. I’ll quote at length from here. It’s not about doxxing per se, but it’s about cancellation attempts (which doxxing a heretic enables), and about arguments similar to the above:
Now, the author has a bestselling book, has been on dozens of podcasts, and now works for an advocacy organization that’s 100% behind her message (she’s not technically listed as a cofounder, but might as well be). She has certainly landed on her feet and has a decent level of reach; yet, clearly, if not for a bunch of incidents like the above—and, as she says, probably a lot more incidents for which she doesn’t have specific evidence—then she would have had much greater reach.
In Scott’s case… if we consider the counterfactual where there wasn’t a NYT article drawing such smears against Scott, then, who knows, maybe today some major news organizations (perhaps the NYT itself!) would have approached him for permission to republish some Slate Star Codex articles on their websites, perhaps specifically some of those on AI during the last ~year when AI became big news. Or offered to interview him for a huge audience on important topics, or something.
So be careful not to underestimate the extent of unseen censorship and cancellation, and therefore the damage done by “naming and shaming” tactics.