I do not have the words to explain why and how much I hate cancel culture. The removal of debate is clearly the easiest way to bring about division in society. Since when did a differing opinion to the mob mean that a human's entire work must be ignored and life destroyed?

There must be room for difference or it is simply another form of tyranny.

If a person cannot be allowed to express a different view without somebody else deciding that they should be socially outcast then why would they do it?

What if people disagree? I disagree with Elon Musk a lot and I say so. I think his views are dangerous on multiple topics. I don't want him cancelled. The thing is that he has a supporting mob.

And that's the point isn't it.

If you've got the bigger, more vocal mob, you win.

So maybe, just maybe, cancel culture favours existing large and vocal online communities that generate mobs.

Wouldn't it be interesting to consider why there aren't so many mobs for certain groups?

Maybe consider groups that have suffered mental and physical abuse.

It's not too hard a leap to realise that some groups have significant power in this online world...

... and other groups have to rely on ally mobs.

Because having a differing opinion to the "mob" on any social media is vicious.

Why the hell would anyone willingly do that?

Two answers spring to mind:

They are either ideologically opposed to the idea - happens a lot.

Or they are *genuinely* holding a differing opinion.

The ideological person should be ignored - zero point in cancelling them as it's a badge of honour.

Canceling someone who genuinely holds a differing viewpoint to you *simply for holding that view* is, in my view, totally wrong.

Engage with them, try to change their mind, or at the very least *understand their position*.

The majority of the time now, when I watch someone in the process of being cancelled, I feel a huge amount of sadness for that person.

Because feeling like the world is against you must be one of the worst feelings imaginable.

And, no, almost nothing deserves that feeling.

I have no idea how to stop the cancelling but it needs to be stopped somehow.

It's making life worse not better.

It's making us less tolerant not more.

It's making politics more divisive not less.

It's making people more horrible not less.

I guess I did have the words

And for the avoidance of all doubt, this is *not* a subtweet or thread defending *anybody* currently or recently being attached by a Twitter mob.