What mob? What pitchforks? The authors hold all the institutional power.

Institutional power? What? The authors are badly paid researchers. The mob are students that can get them fired, make the grants totally go away, and in some cases literally storm their classrooms and threaten violence, even assault them. This isn't a theoretical thing. This happens already.

https://www.aaespeakers.com/keynote-speakers/john-cochrane he gets $50k-$100k speaking fees on top of his six figure salary. The postdocs and students are poorly paid -- professors are generally well compensated.

Random cherry picked person... ok? Yes. SOME people are wealthy enough to not care about cancel-mobs. But even some really rich people are scared anyway! And again, the vast majority of researchers are NOT rich.

The vast majority of researchers are NOT professors even!

The statement "The authors are badly paid researchers" is completely incorrect. I chose one out of the 7 people mentioned in the article at random. Check the other 6 and I'm certain you'll find at least 3 are wealthy.

I don't know what to tell you. I am a researcher (previously at Yale, now at MIT), and I very rarely hear other researchers complain about cancel culture. Largely, I hear horror stories of abuses of power with no repercussions or accountability. It's only, again, a small cadre of professors complaining about this.

It's only a small number of people who are rich AND have courage that are speaking out yes. The rest are frightened and yield to the mob. This is the insidious problem with the whole situation.