Geophysicist MIT lecture on climates of extrasolar planets cancelled after pressure

[Raze]

Dorian Abbot is a geophysicist at the University of Chicago. He was to give MIT's prestigious Carlson Lecture on Oct. 21. The topic was to be climates of extrasolar planets. MIT canceled the lecture under pressure from activists who objected to his political views.

In the past Prof. Abbot released videos in which he raised several misgivings about DEI efforts and expressed concern that a climate of fear is “making it extremely difficult for people with dissenting viewpoints to voice their opinions.”

58 students and postdocs of the Department of Geophysical Sciences, and 71 other graduate students and postdocs from other University of Chicago departments, posted a letter containing the claim that Prof. Abbot’s opinions “threaten the safety and belonging of all underrepresented groups within the [Geophysical Sciences] department” and “represent an aggressive act” towards research and teaching communities.

More recently he co-authored an article once again attacking diversity and inclusion initiatives

https://www.newsweek.com/diversity-problem-campus-opinion-1618419

https://archive.ph/zqTZw

After the lecture was announced, various students, teachers, and online activists began campaigning against it. Some examples in this image:

MIT has cancelled the lecture, Dorian Abbot's response:

What is your opinion on this? Did the activists go too far in asking for the lecture to be cancelled, and was the college right to listen to them? Or did Dorian go too far in criticizing Diversity and inclusion initiatives, and now was no longer compatible with the college and academia?