University of North Carolina
University of North CarolinaiStock

“A friend of mine died this week and people across the country celebrated his death”, wrote David A. French, a well-known conservative columnist at the National Review.

Mike S. Adams shot himself. A friend had called 911 saying that the 55-year-old professor was “very stressed” and hadn't been around for days. Adams, who was a professor of criminology at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, had been forced to resign as of August 1, following two student petitions asking for his expulsion for posting “offensive” comments on social media.

The University had denounced his words as “unjustifiable”, while the petitions grinded 88,000 signatures and the entrance to the faculty was dominated by a rock with the words “Fire Mike Adams”. On May 28, in the wake of protests for George Floyd, the professor had written: “Do not close the universities. Close non-essential majors. Like women studies”.

When university chancellor Jose Sartarelli announced that Adams would be leaving on August 1, the professor replied with a tweet: “Many young people are depressed because they have been taught to feel constantly offended.”

Referring to the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, Adams wrote: “The violent outrage of white liberals taking to the streets is brought to you by your local university. None of this would be possible without the encouragement of academic extremists who have hijacked the system of higher education.”

He seemed to love controversy, from attacks on abortion (his last tweet before death) to criticism of LGBT groups, so much so that he became a hero of Rush Limbaugh's conservative America.

Adams repeatedly targeted students, as when he wrote an article that read: "If your cell phone goes off in class or you are late to class," where he instructs students, "you must write a 2,500-word paper (minimum) entitled 'The Death of Civility at the Postmodern University.' . . . You will receive no other credit for completing this project, except, of course, for its positive impact upon your character.”

He had published numerous books, most recently "Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don't Understand”, for the conservative publishing house Regnery.

Local movie stars, such as Orlando Jones, and teachers from other universities, including 270 criminologists, had also mobilized in support of his expulsion. “2020 success, having survived Mike Adams”, people tweeted after his suicide.

World-famous Swedish opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter blamed MeToo's campaign for the suicide of her husband, Benny Fredriksson: “You can break a person”, said Von Otter.

Mike Adams had also been properly and viciously broken. And too many, perhaps, were looking forward to his self-cancellation.

We have seen this phenomenon before. Where? In Moscow in 1937. Because cancel culture is pure Stalinism.

Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books in addition to books in Italian.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone,Frontpage and Commentary.