Cancel culture & the new culture wars

From 2020 to 2025, tolerance began to lose its virtue, and separation rose to the new moral high ground. . . Cancel culture, identity politics, polarization, digital mobs, and the collapse of good-faith discourse have reshaped how we talk, disagree, and participate in democracy.

In this exclusive panel at the 2025 Global Free Speech Summit, Thomas Chatterton Williams (author of The Demise of Discourse), John Wood Jr. (Braver Angels Ambassador and USA Today columnist), and moderator Michael Moynihan break down the moments that carved the major cultural and political divides of the last five years, from George Floyd’s death and the COVID-19 outbreak, to the Harper’s Letter controversy and the rise of a zero-sum approach to conflict, offering insight into why civil discourse has become so difficult and what it would take to restore meaningful dialogue.