Read on Twitter
As someone who generally sits on the left side of the aisle I do believe that & #39;cancel culture& #39; exists. In fact, it isn& #39;t anything new. But my take on it is a bit different (long thread).
I& #39;ve heard some people say that & #39;cancel culture& #39; is a term used simply to try to silence valid criticism of sexism, racism, etc. I think there& #39;s some truth to that, but it obscures another truth.
& #39;Cancel culture& #39; appears to be the latest term to identify an attitude toward changing things we don& #39;t want to see in society. Namely, leveraging the pain of social ostracization to punish & deter certain behaviour. And the feeling that we *should* do this as a moral duty.
I think it& #39;s important to recognize that the goal here is often to cause pain - not to inform, educate, critique, or suggest anything. It& #39;s a cliche to say that humans are social animals, but being rejected does cause us real pain and we know this intuitively.
This has been leveraged throughout history, ie. during the McCarthy era. It& #39;s by no means a leftist thing, it& #39;s a human thing. And it seems one of the hallmarks is to punish people for errors in judgment, which everyone makes to some degree or another, so many get defensive.
This often seems to prompt a backlash, like the McCarthy era did.
(Disclaimer: Obviously this doesn& #39;t apply to people who are actually dangerous to others. Protecting people by identifying a legitimately dangerous person is not cancel culture.)
(Disclaimer: Obviously this doesn& #39;t apply to people who are actually dangerous to others. Protecting people by identifying a legitimately dangerous person is not cancel culture.)
So when someone does something harmful and loses their job for it, it can feel like progress & it makes us feel vindicated. But it can also incentivize band-aid solutions designed to avoid that pain again; shallow apologies, surface-level reform, + resentment w/o real learning.
At its worst, it takes the form of gossip ("Oh, what did they do??").
Meanwhile, we may find ourselves distracted from the (often faceless) brokers of real power; those who cause incredible damage via corporate neo-colonialism, ecological destruction, anti-poor policy, & so on.
Meanwhile, we may find ourselves distracted from the (often faceless) brokers of real power; those who cause incredible damage via corporate neo-colonialism, ecological destruction, anti-poor policy, & so on.
I guess my question then is: is it best to mobilize our energy around causing each other pain for our missteps? In some cases, it might be fair. Some people really do need a harsh wake-up call, or even to be fought against. But we should try to normalize a different response.
We might try to normalize saying, "Hey, I think what you& #39;ve done here is wrong, and here& #39;s why", without causing unnecessary pain. And we might normalize being open to that criticism, which& #39;ll always be uncomfortable but is much easier to take if you aren& #39;t afraid of being hurt.
And when it comes to freedom of speech, more of us might want to rightfully stake our claim to defending it.
Optically, the fumbled free speech football has been snatched by the undeserving. Outright fascists are among those trying to pass as free speech advocates.
Optically, the fumbled free speech football has been snatched by the undeserving. Outright fascists are among those trying to pass as free speech advocates.
Given power, would they let a feminist, a Zionist, a communist, or a black liberation advocate speak without obstruction? We know the answer.
Maybe we should interrogate this more than the concept of freedom of expression, which is imperfect but incredibly valuable at its core.
Maybe we should interrogate this more than the concept of freedom of expression, which is imperfect but incredibly valuable at its core.
Anyway, this is all just my perspective. I& #39;ve shared it because I felt like some people have distorted this issue and I wanted to share what I honestly think is true. Obviously I haven& #39;t covered every part of this, but I& #39;ve gotta end this thread somewhere!
Tl;dr: Inflicting social pain on one another for misdeeds might actually be an obstacle to the learning and accountability we all need in order to make the world better.
