I keep explaining to my friends that the reason people denounce me is because it gains them political power. This was the case 10+ years ago with Hindutvadi (Hindu nationalist fundamentalist) critics of Sita Sings the Blues: many knew nothing about the film, but condemning it, and me, was part of a political project in India. Please watch this video to understand how this is working in the US.
Impressive.
And to think those are university students. You would expect better from them.
I remember a meeting like this at Oberlin College, 25 or so years ago — not quite at this level of Cultural Revolution fever, but definitely the same dynamic. It was disappointing then and it’s disappointing now. One difference is that there weren’t miniature video recorders then — let alone incipient automated facial recognition online — so the students who embarrassed themselves weren’t doing lasting harm to their reputations.
(Oberlin was a great school, by the way; I believe it still is. There were many, many good things alongside the occasional excess of political correctness.)
Same thing as when climate change deniers, creationists, etc. ignore facts, because those facts don’t jibe with their political biases.