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2) When people call something a & #39;culture& #39; it& #39;s good reason to be on guard. & #39;Culture& #39; can be a useful term when placed in clear context or when used in knowingly broad ways, but less so when trying to name a specific phenomenon. To say there& #39;s a & #39;culture& #39; behind e.g. ...
3) ...firings or internet shamings is a kind of misdirection. It& #39;s either an effort or just a sloppy way to describe something with more tangible and changeable causes.
4) To the extent & #39;cancel culture& #39; is a & #39;culture,& #39; cancel culture is corporate culture. But there& #39;s a better way to describe it: cancel culture is precarity + managerial discipline.
5) As many have pointed out, there& #39;s nothing new about people saying stuff they shouldn& #39;t have said or acting like jerks, racists, and spoiled children. And there& #39;s nothing new about wanting such people to be called to account. And there& #39;s nothing new about people not agreeing on
6) whether someone facing a backlash for what they said or did deserves it, or whether they did something wrong. To the extent anything is new, it& #39;s that (a) precarity is the default or choice labor structure and tactics of managerial discipline and control are further along now
7) than they& #39;ve been, aided in part by technologies that enable surveillance and a zero-tolerance, cover-your-ass approach to management. And (b) even people in high places are subject to forms of precarity (because of (a)).
8) Calling totally predictable and longstanding value conflicts a & #39;culture& #39; makes it seem like the way to reform whatever problems there are with & #39;cancel culture& #39; is through personal reforms, hearing out & #39;the other side,& #39; etc., even when & #39;the other side& #39; is some asshole ...
9) ...who got caught on video telling an Asian-American family walking their dog on a trail & #39;you can& #39;t be in this country,& #39; or some pathetic, vile, smallminded concentrated form of human failure such as that. But I think the solution is much simpler than changing hearts & minds..
10) ...of individuals with varying reasons to listen or not to listen or who may be ill equipped to process their own shortcomings without turning it into a tantrum. Instead...
11) We need labor rights and labor protections. Then we& #39;ll find out really quickly if a firing is justified (say, a person with a title like & #39;Chief People Officer& #39; who accosts an Asian-American family with racist vitriol maybe isn& #39;t fit to lead the People Office anymore)...
12) ...or if what& #39;s really going on is people are just saying mean words to journalists. I don& #39;t see this as a & #39;cultural& #39; problem. I see it as a labor rights issue. If people *really* want free speech, and want to uphold free expression as a *value*, ....
