Every criticism of “cancel culture” fails to recognize that people don’t actually get cancelled. If it’s “too easy just to cancel” then why did a kid who racially bullied a mentally disabled black kid *just get drafted to an NHL team.* He wasn’t cancelled, he was rewarded.

What right wing people call “cancel culture” today used to be called “political correctness” and in both cases it is a massive exaggeration of the phenomena where people say “fuck this, I’m sick of being treated this way” and demand some kind of change.

Comedians get “cancelled” for pulling out their dicks at multiple women who didn’t want it... and then get a Netflix special to make edgy jokes about “cancel culture.” Bro I fucking *wish* there was a cancel culture so we could actually cancel you.

But there isn’t, it’s a right wing bogeyman that serves to slow the already glacial process of addressing the racism, sexism and other garbage that permeates our society (rewarding mediocre people for their good fortune of being born wealthy, white, male, straight, etc.)

The people who hate “cancel culture” are always the same people who will be absolutely unforgiving with someone or something they don’t like, because their objection does not stem from sincere concern about the process of justice and change. They just don’t want take the heat.

Who actually gets cancelled? Every poc youth hockey player who quits bc of the abuse they receive. Or, at a more intense level, Palestinians whose assertion of their existence is deemed anti-Semitic and censored, or trans activists who are murdered for challenging the status quo.

The instant you hear someone say “cancel culture,” know that it comes from a long tradition of reaction against progressive social change. People who hate on cancel culture today hated on affirmative action in the 90s, desegregation in the 70s, civil rights in the 60s, etc.

“It’s all gone too far” the white men cry, oh please. Talk to me when men make less money than women, get constantly harassed about their dicks (showing too much dick? not enough?) and live in constant fear that a woman might rape them and then women cops and judges won’t care.

Same for race or any of the other artificial hierarchies constructed in our society to maintain and justify the inequality at the heart of the system. If “cancel culture” helps undermine those inequalities even a tiny bit, fucking sign me up. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so...

The real critique of cancel culture should be “why are we trying to cancel people who can’t be cancelled” instead of building a revolutionary movement that takes power instead of asking for it? Let’s give rich white guys something they really can cry about.