Victor Davis Hanson speaks at Hanford Rotary

Jun. 16—Author and historian Victor Davis Hanson visited Hanford to discuss the social and political lessons learned from 2020.

Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and chairs the Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict. He is also a professor emeritus at Fresno State and a visiting professor at Hillsdale College.

Speaking at Glad Tidings Church on Tuesday night for the Rotary Club of Hanford, Hanson discussed the response to the pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 riot and what he identified as their exploitation to push for more control and to silence dissent. He also spoke on the topic of "cancel culture" and its potential consequences, saying that anyone could be "one word away" from destroying their careers.

If you're a teacher, administrator, you own a small business, somebody can walk in your business and say, 'I heard him say a word,' and put it on the internet ... and you're done for," Hanson said. "Or somebody can go through your high school yearbook, speaking to somebody from Selma High School and find things in there if they want to."

Elaborating further, Hanson described how he was censured by faculty and staff for "dabbling in conspiracy" by writing an op-ed about the possibility of COVID-19 originating from a virology lab in Wuhan, a theory that has gained more widespread acceptance in recent weeks.

"So there were all these logical skepticisms and yet anyone who said what I just did was in trouble," Hanson said. "And the reason I had raised that is because I wanted to follow the science of my colleagues."

Hanson also spoke on hot-button issues like critical race theory.

"Any time you have an adjective in front of a noun, be careful. If there is racism, you can feel it in your bones, you can hear, it, you can see it," Hanson said. "When they say it's 'systemic,' or say 'microaggression,' they have to add an adjective to tell you, 'you can't see it, but I can detect it because I'm trained to find it.' And that's not a persuasive argument."

After the lecture, Hanson took questions from the audience. The event was organized by the Rotary Club of Hanford.