A few days ago, over 150 academics and writers,
several of whom are wealthy public figures
with large platforms, signed an open letter
that was published in Harper’s magazine
entitled “A Letter on Justice and Debate.”
The crux of the letter was the assertion that
society, and implicitly the left has become
more intolerant of opposing views and increased
calls for silencing of speech is a threat
to the free exchange of ideas, which is the
lifeblood of democ—wait, haven’t we been
through this a million times already?
Hi, I’m T1J.
[WEIRD VOICE:] Follow me!
Now while, the letter didn’t specifically
use the term “cancel culture,” it’s
pretty clear that this is the idea that they
were getting at.
The, by now, trite insistence that free expression
will be, or already is, hindered by the fear
of being “canceled.”
And this letter made some waves on the internet,
but this isn’t new, obviously.
I’m pretty sure roughly every month for
the past like 5 years, I’ve seen at least
one article or video complaining about “cancel
culture” or pondering whether online public
shaming has gone too far.
And I’ll go ahead and give you a spoiler,
just like everything else, it’s heckin complicated.
Sometimes people do go too far, but also sometimes
people who do shitty things oughtta be called
out.
Sometimes the most correct ideas are unpopular
and society should provide space for people
to express those ideas without excessive retribution.
But also, it’s good for people to think
before they speak and to consider the impact
of their words and actions, and I fully support
a society that encourages that.
But this is kind of an annoying conversation
for several other reasons as well.
For one, I’m not even sure what cancel culture
really is, or what it even means to be canceled.
Some people describe “canceling” as essentially
a boycott.
So someone says or does something shitty,
and they become canceled, and you decide you’re
not going to support them anymore.
And this is fair, you don’t have to support
anyone you don’t want to.
As much as I love the Space Jam soundtrack,
R. Kelly gives me the creeps.
The Bugs Bunny Rap still goes hard tho.
But if this was all it was, why would people
complain about censorship and silencing and
shaming.
Boycotts don’t silence or shame anyone.
I suppose, with enough support, you could
harm them financially.
But that’s fair game, because no one has
a right to an audience or to a customer.
And I actually think, the idea of canceling
someone did actually start out this way, but
seems to have evolved over time.
These days, it seems that we’re using the
word “cancel” as a more literal reference
to the idea of like, a “canceled” credit
card, or canceled TV show.
RIP.
My Name is Earl, Gone too soon.
So basically something that’s over, it doesn’t
exist anymore.
So if we take this metaphor to one logical
conclusion, this might imply that “canceling”
someone means to attempt to banish them from
the public eye, or maybe to make it so that
they can’t work anymore, or something to
that effect.
To make it so that they’re over, they don’t
exist anymore.
In practice though, I can’t think of very
many times where a public figure has been
successfully “canceled,” under this definition.
As of the writing of this video, the most
recent famous person that I know of that was
supposedly canceled is JK Rowling, who has
posted a string of tweets which seem ignorant
at best, and callously transphobic at worst.
But I mean, she’s still here.
She’s still tweeting.
She still seems to be beloved by children
and parents.
She has a book coming out in November.
She definitely has not been silenced in any
way.
Now it might be possible that JK Rowling is
so particularly famous that she is uncancellable
outside of committing some sort of violent
crime.
But, when it comes to celebrities and public
figures of any renown, this is kind of what
usually happens.
Unless they willingly stay out of the spotlight,
even though they don’t really have to.
Like sometimes, someone gets accused of or
caught doing or saying something perceived
as bad, and they might even lose a gig, like
when the comedian Shane Gillis was fired from
SNL after offensive jokes he made surfaced
online.
Might even lose some friends and supporters,
but ultimately they seem fine, like Gillis,
they keep working, they keep their platform.
I mean, outside of the ordeal of an internet
dogpile, which I know from experience is unpleasant,
but the word “canceled” doesn’t seem
to really describe the situation.
So either “cancel culture” is really bad
at actually canceling people, or “canceling”
means something other than what it sounds
like it should mean.
Now some people say that “cancel culture”
isn’t really a thing.
And I do think that sometimes these free-speech
warriors like to cherry pick examples of left-wing
lunacy to discredit legitimate activism and
criticism.
And as I mentioned, famous people and public
figures, seem, by and large to be uncancellable.
This is often presented as evidence of the
“myth” of cancel culture, as it seems
the people most likely to complain about it
are people who could never be canceled in
the first place.
But if you’re seriously arguing that people
on the internet don’t ever try in large
numbers to “cancel” people.
That is to attempt make them irrelevant, or
dogpile them into hiding, or cause them to
lose jobs, or to pressure their friends & business
partners to disassociate with them, you’re
either misinformed or being disingenuous.
Whether or not you think it’s justified,
it obviously happens.
Especially on Twitter.
And trust me, I have to remind myself every
day that the atmosphere on Twitter doesn’t
accurately represent the world as it is when
I’m not looking at a screen.
Seriously yall, log off and go look at a sunset
or something every now and then.
But Twitter, unfortunately is where a lot
of our cultural discourse takes place, it
also happens to be perhaps the most convenient
way for the average person to engage with
and talk about celebrities and public figures.
And just because the cancel culture is generally
ineffective when it comes to canceling famous
people, it doesn’t mean they don’t try.
Like have you ever even been on Twitter before?
In reality, “cancel culture” is a Frankenstein
term that is used as a surrogate for several
distinct ideas.
And that’s precisely why it’s a bad term,
because nobody knows what the fuck anyone
is talking about at any given time.
Sometimes, the term is used to downplay legitimate
criticism.
A lot of the people who go on about free-speech
seem to have this idea that they should be
able to say whatever they want with no consequences,
and pretend that the mere concept of being
criticized is tantamount to censorship.
I talked about this a lot in my Sam Harris
video, where I pointed out how Harris had
a habit of accusing everyone who criticized
him of being dishonest agents out to diminish
his reputation.
Cancel culture is also sometimes used interchangeably
with the term “mob mentality,” the idea
that large groups of people can influence
each other to behave emotionally and irrationally.
This is also where the idea of dogpiling comes
in.
Where hundreds or thousands of people go in
on someone for some perceived wrongdoing.
After a certain point it just becomes harassment.
I think it’s more accurate to say that cancel
culture can be a mob mentality.
It’s also important to note that legitimate
criticism and mob mentality are not mutually
exclusive.
It is fair to criticize someone, but 20,000
people yelling the same criticism at that
person?
You could make an argument for that being
essentially bullying.
People also often conflate cancel culture
with “call out culture” which I’ll use
interchangeably with “outrage culture”
for the purposes of this video, even though
you could probably make further distinctions.
This is similar to legitimate criticism, however
in this case, the point is to attack and shame
people rather than educate or advise.
Because of the nature of social media and
how algorithms reward outrage, I’d argue
that this type of engagement is far more common
online than legitimate criticism.
And it’s not just social media.
Media in general these days seems to encourage
us to be intolerant of people with different
opinions than ourselves.
To think of ourselves as enlightened and complex,
but never giving others the same courtesy.
I’m not saying you have to be friends with
everyone, but we make fewer and fewer attempts
to try and understand each other as complex
beings, we just stamp “canceled” on people
the very first time they do or say something
we find a little off putting.
We don’t give people room to make mistakes
or room to evolve and grow into better people.
Once you’ve got the stamp, ya done, son.
Some people use the excuse that celebrities
are rich and powerful so it doesn’t matter
if random people on the internet abuse them,
because they’re gonna be all right.
Well maybe, but they’re still people.
Another problematic aspect of outrage culture
is the idea that it is okay to be hateful
and uncharitable to people with more power
than yourself.
It’s kind of a perversion of the concept
of “punching up,” an assertion that criticism
and rhetoric should be focused in opposition
to those with power rather than those who
are marginalized.
I have issues with this concept in and of
itself, but we can talk about that another
time.
But I think, even if you’re going to punch
up, you still don’t get to treat people
with cruelty and pretend as if they’re not
people with depth and feelings.
So obviously that’s bad, but you know what
it isn’t?
It isn’t censorship.
It’s isn’t silencing.
If we’re gonna use the term “cancel culture”
then it should refer specifically to attempts
at removing or limiting someone’s voice,
resources or platform.
Which, again, people do try to do.
And sometimes it kinda works, usually in cases
of severe crimes that are impossible to ignore.
Like I’m sure Kevin Spacey is financially
fine, but we haven’t heard from him in a
while.
His reputation and influence is probably permanently
damaged.
But in general, it’s hard, if not impossible
to actually apply any long term effects when
we’re talking about celebrities and public
figures.
But not everybody who is a victim of cancel
culture is a celebrity.
Everyday people find themselves the target
of the internet’s rage all the time.
People are doxed and harassed, employers are
pressured to fire people, universities are
asked to expel or punish students.
And I suspect that one of the main responses
will be something to the effect of, “Yeah,
well they deserve it.”
Well first of all, sometimes they don’t,
Like David Shor who was ominously asked by
a follower “are people trying to cancel
you?” after he shared a study which suggested
that riots make it more likely for Republicans
to win elections.
He posted it 3 days after the death of George
Floyd which was probably tone deaf, but it
was hardly a reason to be fired from his job.
But that’s exactly what happened after political
organizer Ari Trujillo Wesler took offense
to his tweet and tagged his boss in the thread.
But even if people are guilty of some transgression,
the idea that they ‘deserve it’ makes
it sound like this whole thing is more about
vengeance than actually making the world a
better place.
And vengeance is stupid.
It provides a small burst of gratification
sure, but in the end, no one’s actually
happier and no one learned anything.
Especially when we consider the fact that
a good portion of the people who get quote-unquote
canceled, are people who simply made a mistake
or mean no obvious harm to anyone.
And perhaps would be open to learning and
growing if they were approached with compassion.
I’m all for challenging power structures
and attempting to increase accountability
for people who rarely see consequences for
anything they do.
And I also understand that we all are exhausted
and angry at a society whose unjust systems
aren’t being dismantled quickly enough.
And some people are voluntarily and intentionally
in the business of using their privilege to
hurt people, and while even in those cases
I’m still no fan of vengeance.
I do think it is important for society to
be intolerant of that kind of behavior.
But most people are just living their lives
the best way they know how.
Sometimes they’re uninformed, sometimes
they have bad ideas.
Sometimes they make mistakes.
But if all we have to offer as a solution
is vengeful retaliation and the implication
that people who have done bad things are incapable
of evolving and growing and thus do not deserve
our understanding and compassion, I don’t
think anything’s going to actually get better.
This is not a battle we can win by creating
more enemies than allies.
The recent successes of Black Lives Matter
is a great example of what happens when people
channel their anger in productive ways, rather
than just yelling at people online or trying
to get people fired.
Hopefully that trend continues.
I think that left-wing activists sometimes
have a weird relationship with “free-speech”
Some folks pretty openly oppose free speech
at this point, which; at least they’re honest.
I’m not one of those people.
But this boring idea that people yelling on
Twitter are some grave threat to the future
of democracy and free-speech seems to largely
originate from people whose privilege has
obscured for them the difference between criticism
and censorship.
This fear of being silenced by a so-called
intolerant society is ridiculously unsupported
by reality.
People are speaking their minds and creating
provocative and controversial media more than
they ever have in recent history.
It’s just that at the same time, more people
than ever are able to respond to and directly
criticize those ideas and creation, including
people from segments of society whose voices
have actually been historically silenced.
And to me, that’s a sign of a society that’s
becoming more, not less, free.
But yeah, we should all still probably get
over ourselves and show more compassion and
understanding to each other, and figure out
how to attack systems of inequality in a practical
and productive way.
You’ll never hear me disagree with that.
DAS JUS ME DOE.
What do you think?
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