Anti-Trans Cancel Culture Comes For Graham Norton
Why opposing cancel culture should be untied from the woke vs anti-woke lens
In a recent interview at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Graham Norton shared his views on cancel culture. Basically, he thought that those of us who decry ‘cancel culture’ are using the wrong word. “I think the word should be accountability,” he said, echoing what many others who are in denial of cancel culture have said.
But then, this being in the UK, the topic of JK Rowling and trans issues inevitably came up. Norton responded by saying that he is only a ‘bloke on the telly’, and those who want to explore those issues should talk to trans people, doctors, and psychiatrists, people who can ‘illuminate this in some way’. Which is totally sensible and fair. However, because of some kind of association of his words with the Rowling controversy (which had something to do with musician Billy Bragg apparently), Norton ended up receiving a barrage of abuse on Twitter, forcing him to shut down his account. I think this kind of shows how the Western cultural landscape is extremely dysfunctional right now. Anyway, Graham Norton, who did not believe cancel culture existed, has now been ironically cancelled himself.
Some commentators have said that Norton should have learned a lesson about cancel culture now, and I agree with them. Cancel culture isn’t simply holding someone accountable. The aim of cancel culture is silencing people, rather than holding people accountable. It’s an attempt by activists to silence voices and ideas they don’t like, with an intention to gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace of ideas. The (unspoken) logic of cancel culture is simple: if the opposition’s argument isn’t heard, it would be easier to win the debate. It is therefore basically a form of cheating. As I previously said, the promise of free speech is that it will get us closer to the truth, and lead to good order in society. However, this would only work if ideas are truly put on a level playing field, and the flow of information isn’t hindered or distorted. This is why cancel culture is the enemy of truth and good order. It’s a shame that too many ‘intellectuals’ in the West don’t seem to understand this nowadays.
However, there is another lesson about cancel culture here that everyone, especially the ‘anti-woke’ people, should learn: cancel culture can come from all sides, including from people who are not usually considered ‘woke’. In this incident, Norton was basically cancelled for being perceived to be supportive of trans people and trans rights. The people doing the cancelling could be broadly described as ‘gender critical’, and these people are not generally considered ‘woke’ for some arbitrary reason. (Gender critical feminism is considered part of the ‘non-woke’ Left, even though it is a form of identity politics, for reasons I don’t fully understand.)
I guess this is why this incident has received lower than expected levels of attention, compared to say, last year’s controversy over Dave Chappelle. Many ‘free speech activists’ who fought for Chappelle’s free speech back then simply failed to come out and support Norton this time. Far too often, cancel culture that comes from the supposedly ‘non-woke’ is not taken as seriously. It’s like how when, earlier this year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis used the power of the state to ‘punish’ Disney for speaking up against his Don’t Say Gay law, and ‘anti-woke’ free speech forces didn’t unite to oppose the move as some might have expected. This just shows how the ‘woke’ vs ‘anti-woke’ lens is of limited utility in defending free speech, and well past its expiry date, in a time when cancel culture can almost equally come from all sides.
This is why it’s time we moved away from a ‘woke’ vs ‘anti-woke’ narrative, towards a narrative that opposes cancel culture and defends free speech on the grounds of traditional classical liberal ideals. We should highlight the fact that free speech holds the promise of getting us closer to the truth, and also therefore building sound consensus and good order in society. Cancel culture destroys this promise, no matter what direction it is coming from, and no matter who is being targeted. Moreover, taking sides in culture wars would also harm this promise, because this would make it impossible to be committed to the objective truth, and building a good order for all. This is also why we need to be very wary of people who want us to join a tribe and play the culture war game.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who recently published her autobiography The TaraElla Story, in which she described the events that inspired her writing.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory.
