How do you end 'cancel culture'?

[aelf]

There has been lots of noise about 'cancel culture' the world over in recent years. The term is thrown around whenever people call out someone or an organisation for things they do and say.

Sometimes, things do get cancelled, like when a band could not perform because they no longer had the permit to do so due to public (conservative) complaints. But people also seem to consider companies ending business relationships with someone or another business as 'cancellations'.

So what does it mean to end 'cancel culture'? How can it be done? Does it mean preventing people from calling for boycotts or advocating that others stop supporting something? How would you police that? Wouldn't that constitute policing people's speech and consumer behaviour?

How do conservatives square that with their belief in free speech and the free market?

 

[EnglishEdward]

I dunno. I think I may try by watching some John Cleese sketches.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cancel-culture-takes-fun-life-192616126.html

 

[GenMarshall]

I’m going to admit that it’s a complicated task to figure out to solve.

Though largely the complaints I’ve heard were from your average John and Jane Does that the cancel culture they’d face would be being fired from their job because of a tweet or Facebook post they’ve made, even if the tweet or post was made on their own time. Though I will admit that there was a cancel culture before there was a cancel culture, though largely revolving around the hiring process and making sure your Facebook page doesn’t show that your a party animal. Though it’s more of a case of inadvertently canceling yourself.

 

[Senethro]

Universal Basic Income so someones survival cannot be threatened by blacklisting etc.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

So what does it mean to end 'cancel culture'? How can it be done? Does it mean preventing people from calling for boycotts or advocating that others stop supporting something? How would you police that? Wouldn't that constitute policing people's speech and consumer behaviour?

How do conservatives square that with their belief in free speech and the free market?

I'd love to know that, because it's going on in my province now. And the hell of it is, I agree with a fraction of it (protesters blocking critical infrastructure or harassing people going about their lawful daily business should be illegal), but the rest? I've been blocked from expressing my displeasure with the way the Minister of Health is doing his job. He's not supposed to do that. Cabinet Ministers are not supposed to block people from social media unless they're making threats or doing anything else illegal. But it's not illegal to say "I think you're doing a bad job and should resign."

Yet people are blocked from his page, from the Premier's page, the Minister of Social Services won't let anyone other than personal friends post on her FB page (before you say she can decide whoever she wants to post there, she's using it as her official MLA page, so that means she cannot ethically block any Albertan from posting there).

The premier is very much against allowing people to criticize his government, and calling for a boycott of any business owned or staffed by his "people" - friends or corporate buddies - is something he is trying to stamp out.

People's posts are censored on a daily basis in the comment section of the news site I post on - whether they follow the guidelines or not. Factual statements are often blocked. You can post identical things 6 hours apart, and one may be censored and the other won't - it depends on the luck of the draw of their unaccountable moderators (there's no grievance procedure).

So how all that is squared - by either end of the political spectrum - is something I can't fathom. It's one of those things where you (generic 'you') have to switch off the part of your brain that says, "This doesn't make sense."

 

[AnthonyPaulO]

'Cancel culture' is a herdlike mentality born from what is considered unreasonable outrage at some xyz event that results in punishing the perpetrator by cancelling some event that would have benefited said perpetrator. The key word here is *unreasonable*. It's one thing to boycott an institution for hiring Hitler as their preseident, it's quite another for boycotting a comedian because they made homosexual jokes back when it was the norm (which is in of itself a separate but related problem because PC culture has gone too far in branding pretty much everything as malicious). I'm all for respecting people of all creeds, but there is such a thing as going too far in the opposite direction that you're making the cure as bad as the problem. PC has evolved from righteous indignation to knee-jerk persecution.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Cancel culture is literally just boycotting, which is an act of free speech...

 

[AnthonyPaulO]

Cancel culture is literally just boycotting, which is an act of free speech...

It's a lot more nuanced than boycotting, otherwise it would just be called 'boycotting'.

 

[BCheek]

How do conservatives square that with their belief in free speech and the free market?

Cancel culture was popularized by the left and now that it's being done to them they don't like it and it should stop, lol.

How do conservatives square that belief? If someone is attacking you, you only put up with it for so long until you punch back.

If you can't take it then don't dish it out lefties.

 

[AnthonyPaulO]

Cancel culture was popularized by the left and now as per usual now that it's being done to them they don't like it and it should stop, lol.

How do conservatives square that belief? If someone is attacking you, you only put up with it for so long until you punch back.

If you can't take it then don't dish it out lefties.

That's a terrible take. One can turn this political and also say that conservatives square that belief by hiding behind their religion and claiming freedom to discriminate and immunity to any backlash. The reality is that people have taken a noble concept and pushed it beyond its original scope into something as bad as what they're trying to prevent. This happens on both sides, so let's not turn this into some political statement.

 

[aelf]

'Cancel culture' is a herdlike mentality born from what is considered unreasonable outrage at some xyz event that results in punishing the perpetrator by cancelling some event that would have benefited said perpetrator. The key word here is *unreasonable*. It's one thing to boycott an institution for hiring Hitler as their preseident, it's quite another for boycotting a comedian because they made homosexual jokes back when it was the norm (which is in of itself a separate but related problem because PC culture has gone too far in branding pretty much everything as malicious). I'm all for respecting people of all creeds, but there is such a thing as going too far in the opposite direction that you're making the cure as bad as the problem. PC has evolved from righteous indignation to knee-jerk persecution.

Putting aside the very subjective notion of reasonable vs. unreasonable boycotts, what do you have to say about the questions posed in the OP? If 'cancel culture' is bad, what is the remedy?

Cancel culture was popularized by the left and now that it's being done to them they don't like it and it should stop, lol.

How do conservatives square that belief? If someone is attacking you, you only put up with it for so long until you punch back.

If you can't take it then don't dish it out lefties.

So what does "punch back" mean?

 

[Seon]

Cancel culture does not exist in the way that it’s detractors usually claim they do and accusations of a phenomenon being an example of ‘cancel culture’ have been used before to shut down or mislead legitimate criticism and inquiries into truth of a matter before.

Therefore there is a responsibility as observers to carefully consider the merit of a claim made by a celebrity that they are being ‘canceled’ for whatever reason. Sure, some social phenomenon linked to cancel culture were unmerited. However, where there is smoke there usually is fire, and we shouldn’t stop at simply meekly believing someone claiming they’ve been canceled for no reason without looking into the details, lest we be fooled by smokescreen tactics.

 

[AnthonyPaulO]

Putting aside the very subjective notion of reasonable vs. unreasonable boycotts, what do you have to say about the questions posed in the OP? If 'cancel culture' is bad, what is the remedy?

You hit the nail on the head, which is why I couldn't answer the question... reasonable is subjective and changes over time, and common sense isn't exactly common, so how do we 'solve' these problems?

 

[caketastydelish]

How do you end cancel culture? By canceling it.

 

[gay_Aleks]

That's a terrible take. One can turn this political and also say that conservatives square that belief by hiding behind their religion and claiming freedom to discriminate and immunity to any backlash. The reality is that people have taken a noble concept and pushed it beyond its original scope into something as bad as what they're trying to prevent. This happens on both sides, so let's not turn this into some political statement.

Except that...it's always been political, my friend. There's no such thing as an "apolitical" statement. You can't possibly avoid that. Beyond that, both siding it isn't really the way to go, considering, well, the immense power imbalance present currently at hand, as "conservatives" currently hold the levers of most state power. Speaking of...

Cancel culture was popularized by the left and now that it's being done to them they don't like it and it should stop, lol.

How do conservatives square that belief? If someone is attacking you, you only put up with it for so long until you punch back.

If you can't take it then don't dish it out lefties.

What is "cancel culture", if not the jackbooted thugs firing tear gas at protesters? Or the bosses suppressing the free speech (!) of their workers, when they express a desire to unionize? One may even be inclined to say that the usage of state power was the original cancel culture, for, if we go back to the history of developed nations, like, say, the U.S, and look at events like the Kent State shooting, we can observe how the "free speech" that supposedly every citizen is endowed with, is swiftly repressed once it becomes uncomfortable. Therefore, that is, just like the perceived cancel culture coming from the left (which, usually tends to be a chimera), free speech is an illusion, affordable only to those with the power to spread it around.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

It's a lot more nuanced than boycotting, otherwise it would just be called 'boycotting'.

It's literally just not buying the product, giving them likes or views etc.

It's boycotting.

 

[warpus]

Start your own company and don't cave in to any demands.

DONE

 

[BCheek]

That's a terrible take. One can turn this political and also say that conservatives square that belief by hiding behind their religion and claiming freedom to discriminate and immunity to any backlash. The reality is that people have taken a noble concept and pushed it beyond its original scope into something as bad as what they're trying to prevent. This happens on both sides, so let's not turn this into some political statement.

Hiding behind religion and claiming freedom, lol. You guys really need to update your conservative stereotypes. The regurgitated boomer talking points from the 60's are so out of touch it's comical to everyone outside your far-left bubble.

Cancel culture is political. If you're going to take political action and make political statements then be prepared to have it done to you too and everyone thinks their own political beliefs are nobel.

a noble concept and pushed it beyond its original scope

This reads, "It was noble until it started getting done to us." Lol.

So what does "punch back" mean?

Isn't it you lefties who coined the term, "by any means necessary," and "punch a nazi." Surely you must know.

What is "cancel culture", if not the jackbooted thugs firing tear gas at protesters? Or the bosses suppressing the free speech (!) of their workers, when they express a desire to unionize? One may even be inclined to say that the usage of state power was the original cancel culture, for, if we go back to the history of developed nations, like, say, the U.S, and look at events like the Kent State shooting, we can observe how the "free speech" that supposedly every citizen is endowed with, is swiftly repressed once it becomes uncomfortable. Therefore, that is, just like the perceived cancel culture coming from the left (which, usually tends to be a chimera), free speech is an illusion, affordable only to those with the power to spread it around.

What a bunch of meaningless word salad.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

What a bunch of meaningless word salad.

What do you struggle with in that paragraph?

Come, let's have some constructive critique

 

[BCheek]

What do you struggle with in that paragraph?

Come, let's have some constructive critique

Okay.

Try writing coherently next time. When you ramble on in such an unorganized manner, badly stringing together unrelated and irrelevant subjects to the topic people will struggle to understand what it is you're talking about. Perhaps try reading what your just wrote back to yourself before posting. If it doesn't make sense to you, or you have a hard time following your train of thought, you should probably reconsider whatever point it was you were trying to make. Please have some courtesy for the reader.

Hope this helps.