‘Your life has no value. Kill yourself’: Mobs inflicting lasting mental anguish on academics

A new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression reveals the massive damage inflicted by hate campaigns that are launched against academics across America when they say something of which “the mob” disapproves.

FIRE surveyed more than 600 academics listed in its Scholars under Fire database who were sanctioned or targeted from 2020 to 2024, and 209 responded.

“Nearly all (94%) who participated in the survey described the impact of their experience as negative. Roughly two-thirds (65%) experienced emotional distress, and significant chunks reported facing harrowing social setbacks, such as being shunned at work (40%) or losing professional relationships (47%) and friendships (33%),” the organization reported. “For some, the consequences were severe. About a quarter of the scholars who completed the survey reported that they sought psychological counseling (27%), and 1 in 5 lost their jobs entirely (20%).”

Nathan Honeycutt, the organization’s manager of polling and analytics, said, “Cancellation campaigns are often wrapped in the language of preventing ’emotional harm.’ But our survey shows that it’s the mobs themselves that inflict lasting mental anguish on academics, many of whom still suffer the consequences long after the controversy subsided.”

The report found the attacks to be one-sided, citing large numbers of professors, one in three, who say they have “toned down” their statements for fear of causing controversy: “These concerns are especially pronounced among politically moderate and conservative faculty members, who report self-censoring more frequently than they liberal and progressive colleagues.