Does cancel culture even exist?
Who gets to decide when it is too far?
The internet, particularly social media, has changed how, when, and where some kinds of interactions occur. A climate in which nothing is untouched by polarization, in which everything is a proxy for some broader orientation that must be sorted in the paradigm of Bad vs. Good. In this universe all discourse is subordinate to activism; everything is a narrative and if we are not pro we are against it. There is no middle ground. Political scandals, conspiracy theories, horror stories, and pandemic outrages are nothing to the number of people going online and calling out others for their behavior or problematic words. The most common area of opposing arguments on social media arises from people’s differing perspectives. Therefore does cancel culture even exist?
How can we know what others find offensive? It is too easy to ‘be offended’ and not even try to understand the issue. People say ‘accept diversity’ but are ‘unwilling’ to listen to others’ ideas. Don’t believe in self-appointed guardians of political purity. The cure for speech we do not like is more speech, not less. So “canceling” rather than being a way of speaking truth to power, has spun out of control and become a senseless form of social media mob rule. A trend of communal calls to boycott anyone not only celebrities whose behavior was…
