Lying Away Cancel Culture

[Kishkumen]

On occasion I watch a couple of hours of MSNBC, which is much more time than I spend with Fox News. Now that Chris Wallace has left Fox, I doubt I'll watch that channel at all. In any case, one of the more sadly humorous things I have seen people on MSNBC do is deny the existence of "cancel culture."

"What is this cancel culture of which you speak?"

"It is something Fox News made up, of course!"

"If Fox News made it up, then it must not exist!"

"Whew! So glad it does not exist because if it did we may have a problem on our hands!"

"We do not have a problem on our hands. Fox News has a problem with facts and cannot be trusted in any way."

And yet, as reliably as I have voted against the New Fascist Party (GOP), and as little as I trust Fox News (especially now that Chris Wallace has left), I cannot be convinced that there is nothing called "cancel culture."

Take, for example, the recent experience of Terry Gilliam. Gilliam was producing a show that was supposed to be staged at the Old Vic. I say all of this in the past tense because Gilliam committed one of the unpardonable sins against Wokeism when he asked people what they thought about Dave Chappelle's controversial comedy routine and, worse yet, posted a link to that routine.

It was not too long afterward that people who worked at the Old Vic decided that Gilliam had to be shown the door. And he was. Now he is producing his play at another theater. Gilliam announced all of this on Facebook, and I couldn't help but agree with him when he took exception to his invitation to a conversation about an issue becoming the grounds for kicking him out of his theater gig.

That is what I see as being a very clear example of cancel culture. I say it exists, regardless of what the right-thinking people at MSNBC may claim.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

It definitely exists. From my pov, the only people denying cancel culture existing are people who, with a wink and a nod, are fine with it as long as you don’t call it what it is.

- Doc

[Kishkumen]

It definitely exists. From my pov, the only people denying cancel culture existing are people who, with a wink and a nod, are fine with it as long as you don’t call it what it is.

- Doc

And this is why we are not right-thinking people, and we will not be invited to the parties that right-thinking people attend.

[Res Ipsa]

It definitely exists. From my pov, the only people denying cancel culture existing are people who, with a wink and a nod, are fine with it as long as you don’t call it what it is.

- Doc

And this is why we are not right-thinking people, and we will not be invited to the parties that right-thinking people attend.

Of course it exists. It has always existed. We just gave a name to it when it started happening to people we like.

[K Graham]

FOX News didn't invent it but they've certainly tried to do their share of canceling over the years, and they'd been doing this well before "cancel culture" became a thing to criticize. I mean, does anyone not remember the Dixie Chicks? FOX canceled them in a heartbeat for merely expressing their opinion about then President George Bush. I also remember when France refused to go along with the UN Resolution to invade Iraq, Bill O'Reilly called for a boycott of all things French.

[Kishkumen]

Of course it exists. It has always existed. We just gave a name to it when it started happening to people we like.

Actually, I beg to differ on that point. It always existed in some form, but it took its frank use as a phrase by people involved in leftist identity politics for it to receive that name. I recall very clearly tweets saying "cancel white people." I don't take umbrage to that tweet. I quote it to provide a more historically valid datapoint regarding the creation of the term than "people we like." It was this use of the term "cancel" that gave its present iteration a name, a new form, and the kind of attention it has received.

But, please, let's not deny that it exists and refuse to consider the pros and cons thereof.

[Kishkumen]

FOX News didn't invent it but they've certainly tried to do their share of canceling over the years, and they'd been doing this well before "cancel culture" became a thing to criticize. I mean, does anyone not remember the Dixie Chicks? FOX canceled them in a heartbeat for merely expressing their opinion about then President George Bush. I also remember when France refused to go along with the UN Resolution to invade Iraq, Bill O'Reilly called for a boycott of all things French.

Indeed! And this is what makes the whole mess so hilariously awful. The answer is not to question "cancel culture," but to imitate it?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

FOX News didn't invent it but they've certainly tried to do their share of canceling over the years, and they'd been doing this well before "cancel culture" became a thing to criticize. I mean, does anyone not remember the Dixie Chicks? FOX canceled them in a heartbeat for merely expressing their opinion about then President George Bush. I also remember when France refused to go along with the UN Resolution to invade Iraq, Bill O'Reilly called for a boycott of all things French.

For sure. It exists everywhere and has been turbocharged by social media. You can go on virtually any platform, and depending in their bent, be subject to ‘unfair’ and ‘heavy handed’ moderation that makes them feel like their mission from god, whatever their god is these days, is secure.

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

My reserves of things to worry about is kinda tapped. Which aspects of cancel culture should I be most concerned about:

1. Terry Gilliam gets to put on his production at a different theater?
2. New state laws prohibiting the teaching of accurate U.S. history?
3. New wave of banning books from school libraries?

Cancel culture became a "thing" only when someone noticed that it was happening to a certain class of people.

[Kishkumen]

You can go on virtually any platform, and depending in their bent, be subject to ‘unfair’ and ‘heavy handed’ moderation that makes them feel like their mission from god, whatever their god is these days, is secure.

Nicely and accurately described.