"Cancel Culture"

[CousinIT]

Link to tweet

[Haggard Celine]

1. Exactly!

What they do is just as bad as anything liberals do. And they accuse liberals of hypocrisy.

[Caliman73]

7. What they do is worse.

There is at least some desire for justice within the misguided attempts from some liberals, to "cancel" someone. Some offense or perceived offense. There are also, often, real reasons why social media goes after people, like Harvey Weinstein and others. It is however, a double edged sword, and sometimes things go too far, or are made nefarious by bad actors.

Conservatives, in my opinion, rarely operate in good faith. They use ideas like "canceling" to eliminate enemies, and then turn around and bemoan how "mean" liberals are, knowing that we liberals tend to live in nuanced and complicated worlds, and we will examine the situation and have discussion and debate about the situation.

Conservatives will continue to call for banning things, boycotting things, and all manner of "canceling" and not bat an eyelash at their hypocrisy. They will continue to use the idea of canceling to scare back valid criticism of their awful ideas, because that is what they do. All of this is in service to their desire to remain dominant in the cultural landscape and dictate the rules of the debate.

[Haggard Celine]

8. Very true.

It's like we're all back in school and we're the teachers and they're the asshole kids. Not all the kids are assholes, I'm mostly talking about the repeat offenders.

It's generally the same ones doing the same shit over and over, especially in Congress. They make money just from owning the libs. I swear, there's so much money in it that it's tempting to do it myself, but I have a soul.

But I digress, they do shit just to fuck things up and piss off the teachers. And some of them make a good living just from pissing us off. I would like to take some of that money away, if not all of it.

So what do you do with children who live to piss you off all the time? Start pissing them off! Point out how much their TV evangelists and all the rest of those Bible -thumpers are making and do exposes of their pampered lifestyles.

Find contradictions between the things they say and how they live. There's a million little things we can do to upset them. We don't usually do it because we're generally more polite than they are, but I think it's time to put the shoe on the other foot. Let us be the ones who get to laugh for a change. Own the Cons!

[Botany]

2. There is no such thing as "cancel culture" it is the new "fake news" 2.0.

Trump and the right used "fake news" in order not to talk about Russia installing Trump
and "cancel culture" is being used because "they" can't talk about Trump being banned
from social media platforms after using them to spread lies and trying to incite violence
to over throw our democracy.

[Shermann]

4. If "cancel culture" isn't real, then we probably don't agree on the definition

Wikipedia defines it as a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles.

It's not difficult to find examples where this has happened, so by this definition it is most certainly real. Whether or not Republicans have coopted and weaponized the term is irrelevant.

What's new is the relentless efficiency with which this occurs on social media. Nowadays the main target is no longer just politicians and celebrities, but ordinary people as well. Social media is very effective at disseminating truths, half-truths, and outright lies all mixed together. This jumbled mess forms the "evidence" used by the self-appointed judges and unregulated courts of public opinion.

[Caliman73]

5. Agreed. Good post.

Cancel culture does exist. It has always existed. As you said, very well, the co-opting and corruption of the idea by conservatives is a separate issue. You can always count on conservatives to take a concept that has typically been a more liberal idea, and use it to paint themselves as victims. Valid criticism of horrible right wing ideas can be dismissed as "cancel culture". The cancel culture that exists, mainly within social media and sites like YouTube, can be a problem. What right wingers are complaining about, is NOT cancelling.

Here is a video by a left wing Trans person Natalie Wynn, who is a pretty popular culture and politics commenter about the phenomenon. It is long, but worth the watch.

[AZProgressive]

10. At DU we used to call those flame wars

I don't believe "cancel culture" is real or it isn't anything new. Also those on top of the privilege pyramid are those that complain about "cancel culture" the loudest. Ordinary people do get "cancelled" for a lot less. I live in a right-to-work state.

[Moostache]

3. Don't forget the way many of them treated their gay children either.

Disowning your own child because of who they are is one of the many, many hideous outcomes from many "Christian" right wing nut cases...

[smb]

6. "Cancel Culture" "Boo-Hoo, They Won't Let Me Be An Asshole Without Consequences Any More" nt

[smirkymonkey]

11. +1000

[Initech]

9. They burned NFL merchandise and are lecturing us about "cancel culture". That's rich.

They even started their own league that turned out to be a colossal fail to stick it to the NFL. Now that's cancel culture.