These days, that question arises rather often, and the usual answer is: Appease the mob.
A particularly disturbing example is the story of Bob Kuczewski, who was a computer specialist at the Salk Institute. But one day he made the unpardonable mistake of taking issue with BLM rhetoric, writing:
At the risk of losing a job that I love very much… Black lives matter? White lives matter? All lives matter? How about… Good lives matter… most. The notions of good and bad are being undermined by the superficial colors of black and white. Rodney King was not a particularly good man. From what I have read, George Floyd was also not a particularly good man. Certainly, Derek Chauvin is not a very good man either. Their skin color doesn’t matter.
It’s not about black and white. It’s about good and bad. That’s what matters and that’s what we should hold up as our ideals. The deification of people based on the color of their skin is extremely flawed and does not lead us to a better society. Holding people accountable for being better human beings… does.
The brass at the institute couldn’t have such a wrong-thinking person around any more and terminated him.
Wenyuan Wu, executive director of the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, has the whole story here.
She compares the way that people like Bob Kuczewski are treated today for voicing their views with the treatment of Galileo in the 17th century. When it comes to tolerating people who hold unorthodox ideas, we haven’t made much progress.