Crime and Banishment

While some abuse the term, a Cancel Culture does exist — and sometimes targets minor slips and legitimate opinions

“Dangerous Liaisons,” based on an 18th-century French novel, shows a different version of a cancel culture

The past year’s debate over a progressive “cancel culture” in America has flared up again, partly because some supporters of Donald Trump have been invoking the term to gripe about various penalties (legal and extralegal) for the recent attempt to overturn a democratic election.

The End of the Line

In a particularly absurd moment, Congressman Jim Jordan asserted from the House floor that the impeachment of Donald Trump, in response to the president siccing a violent mob on the U.S. Congress to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, was “cancel culture” in action. Senator Josh Hawley has made the same claim about Simon & Schuster’s cancellation of his upcoming book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, after he led the effort to challenge the vote certification in the House and was photographed cheering on pro-Trump protesters with a raised fist shortly before the protests turned violent.