Cancel Culture: Older than Socrates and Newer than the Internet

Saying cancel culture is ancient is both true and trite — it’s like responding to a mention of the electric car by saying wheeled vehicles have been around for five and a half thousand years. Cancel culture is the 21st century version of the ancient desire to destroy heretics and infidels. It began in the US and has parallels to an older US phenomenon, McCarthyism, but if…