(Guest post by Greg Forster)
I thought JPGBers following the saga of Higgy winner Kosoko Jackson might be interested to see my new post over on HT, on the latest controversy over an author’s book being cancelled.
In which I lose it.
An excerpt:
(Wisconsinites, vote Dan Kelly on April 7!)
Wait, sorry, wrong part of the post. Here we go:
He can even self-publish his book! Publish it under the label Woody Allen Is Totally Innocent and Also All the Teen Girls Love Him Books and Industrial Waste, Inc.!
“But wait,” I hear you cry, “aren’t you the same Greg Forster recently seen driving donuts in Kosoko Jackson’s front yard?”
Yes, so for the slower students, I shall hereby Break If Down (stand back):
For the record, yes, this does constitute an amendment to my earlier statement here on JPGB that “At bare minimum, if the publisher initially judged the book publishable, it should come out so we can all evaluate it based on what’s actually in it. Publishers aren’t obligated to publish anything and everything, but they do need to show some spine once they’ve made a judgement – especially given that they’ve actually read the book and the critics who are Angry Online almost never have.”
That statement neglected to include a caveat to the effect that in some cases, the initial publication decision was so foolish that it’s right to reverse it. I had in mind potentially hard cases, open to interpretation, where mob rule threatened to make informed judgment impossible – not colossal errors of prudence on the publisher’s part, where informed judgment unambiguously supports cancellation. Judging each case on the merits is the overall principle here.
Speaking of judges: Vote Dan Kelly on April 7!
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Another view: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/a-hilarious-book-from-one-of-historys-great-wits/