Is cancel culture real or is it just a right-wing myth?

I believe it’s real, but frequently misapplied to situations that are better called something else. Is it “cancel culture”, for example, to fire someone for any reason other than inability to do their job? Does a company have a right to protect its reputation and enforce its own rules (and fire people if they violate them, even if what they’ve done is not illegal)? Is it "cancel culture" to exercise economic freedom and boycott a business whose practices you don't support? A lot of what gets called “cancel culture” is just the equivalent of an audience booing someone on stage. It isn’t “cancel culture” to be poorly received or criticized. It’s just as “canceling” to say we can’t react negatively to someone or their content.

It’s not new for people to be shunned or blacklisted, but I think what “cancel culture” refers to is the relatively recent social media-inspired phenomenon of a public person doing or saying something stupid or “problematic” and then being removed from their job or having their reputation ruined (and often very quickly without much introspection). I’ve always been someone who can separate art from the artist. I’m not going to stop listening to Wagner because he was an anti-Semite or stop watching Woody Allen films because of the allegations against him. I think what alarms people about cancel culture is that often it involves allegations only (no proof of any wrongdoing), it involves the dredging up of old content that the person has since disavowed and thus perpetuates the idea that people cannot escape their past or redeem themselves, and the swiftness and ruthlessness with which it happens.

I also believe that referring to it as a "culture" is appropriate given the recent instances of "self-cancellation" where entities (like the Dr. Seuss estate) censor themselves or their own work in anticipation of a "cancelling mob" that may never have actually been gunning for them--nonetheless the culture is such that this is even a concern. But as others have pointed out, the idea that this exists only on the left is patently false; right-wing "cancellation" is attested from the past (particularly on the part of religious conservatives going after elements of culture they view to be debased and sacrilege) and occurs now.

"Cancel culture" is intellectual laziness. It's removing something before you can engage with it rather than engaging with it honestly and fairly.

Cancel culture is real and not entirely good, but it's always existed and it's not exclusively left-wing as they'd like to claim. I seriously doubt, for example, that you'd have kept your day job if you published a Satanic book in the year 1900, and homosexual literature faced challenges from the US Post Office itself in the '50s.

I guess it exists, as there are clearly people out there who don't like what other people say, when and where and to whom they say it.

How prevalent, defined, organized, threatening,and malicious this particular aspect of the conspiracy against "Conservatives" it is seems like a different story.

Maybe we should ask Salman Rushdie?

American conservatives tried to cancel an election!!

*cancels coke while drinking coke*

It does, but most of the time it is very much just very aggressive virtue signalling. Some companies have even successfully manipulated the phenomenon for profit. Nike made a fortune over right wingers burning their sneakers/trainers.

As much as the right likes to complain about it much of the tactics and even the motivations behind it can be traced back to evangelical purity culture of the 90s in particular as many former evangelicals have pointed out and started with trying to ban gangster rap and South Park.

It seems to mean different things depending on the target.

Its real. Not just on the right. The right speaks about it only in terms of conservative vs liberal but even withn various niche communities people are trying to cancel this person or that.
I'd say that cancel culture is real but its just people online whinning and sometimes sponsors fire people so as not to loose customers or brand value.

Mostly used as a slogan by the right, and for now I guess only/mostly in the U.S, to define anything that goes from a boycotting action to the hallucinations that are product of their paranoia.

I'm curious to see how the alrighters over here will translate the expression. "Cultura della cancellazione"? Doesn't make much sense 🤔

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott cancelled his appearance at a MLB game to throw out the first pitch to protest the move of the All Star Game from Georgia.

This is one of the latest examples of the hypocrisy of Republicans claiming cancel culture is everyone else.

It’s a thing, but it’s not new. The US Boycotted the Moscow Olympics during the Cold War.

Had it reached hysterical levels? Maybe, the the people who complain most about it seem to be equally guilty.

It exists even leftist types get cancelled.. but it’s not really a thing that can be controlled.. piss off enough people and even if a platform doesn’t remove you often people feel so ashamed over their exposure they remove themselves...

In fact I’d say that’s the more likely outcome for a lot of people.. Where it gets weirder to me is when society thinks it has to cancel things like dr.suess books.. But keeps the porn industry highly active.. If anything should be cancelled immediately it should be that.. But the government’s the world over make too much money off it, so it’ll never happen..

But there’s plenty of examples, especially when things like twitch, YouTube or other entertainment media’s are concerned, where someone is left winged. Can be the complete opposite of a more conservative based mindset, and becomes cancelled because of their behaviors, actions, and words..

A cancel culture exists, but I think the phrase and its partner, 'woke,' are vague terms used to describe more than they actually define.

I believe it's entirely legitimate to want to minimize what's seen as a damaging or negative influence. But to disclude something simply because it doesn't align with what you like without any real reason or foundation, thenwe get into the neighborhood of cancel culture.

This pettiness exists on all sides. Republicans should cringe when they recall Freedom fries. They should also look at their efforts to expel masks from this country before pointing the finger at anyone else. Likewise, the Democrats- not without reason - are known to be quick to react to social causes and they can sometimes trip over their own feet showing their passion in, let's say, more trivial ways.

The insidiousness of cancel culture at the moment in the States is that it's being used by the right to play the victim in the struggle to rid this country of its ugliness.

I mean people on the far left claim it doesn't exist until it personally affects them. Then they start screaming about it, too and then everyone just goes "Oh well. You were defending this behavior. It's karma."

Outrage and boycots, peer pressure ... that's just part of societies. It's not persé a culture. Certain segments of the poppulation use it as a form of continuous activism. However, if these segments don't find popular support then nothing happens with it. Personal attacks however can be pretty damadging, no matter if someone gets canceled or not. Turning it into a general thing like "cancel culture", I don't see it. And blaming it on one side of the political spectrums, ist dumb and can only be explained as a certain segment of the poppulation using it as a tool to sway public opinion. It works a lot with those people that have a serious bad media diet.

They all block me as well. A few days ago, Trump was calling for cancelling Coca Cola, while sporting a can of diet coke on his desk.

I think we should be able to use our economic power to support our political beliefs. Why would I want to buy My Pillow products? Fuck him and the horse he rode on.

The same goes for every business that supports Jim Crow 2.0, and racists/fascists. If it's called the Cancel Culture, so be it.

The right is the greatest practitioner of "cancel culture."

First of all....hiiiiiiii!!!!!!


I think there are two levels in this. There is this whole social media level where someone spouts hate towards a group of people and then is attacked, vilified, bullied for their view or opinion. Some may lose jobs, reputations and even their social media accounts.
It is real, it is not always a bad thing, but it does get horribly ugly when people hide behind their anonymity to return that hate...for example rape threats to jkr

On another level I have seen it in my daughter's peer group. A boy, a nice boy, was removed from all WhatsApp groups and social media friends....for an inappropriate joke about sexuality. And whilst it is right that they tell the boy it is unacceptable I really feel for a kid who is just 14 to be "cancelled" like that.

That sounds like a good idea

not in any way that actually makes a difference to anything and every political persuasion has the few idiots that do do this stuff

just like pretty much every other bogeyman on the right ,yes.

I don't even what to hear from them anymore myself because it's like you're going to piss and moan about cancel culture like the GOP didn't try to cancel video games didn't try to cancel dungeons and dragons and the dixie chicks and on and on and on.

The thing about the people on the right is they're scared shitless of everything.

and it's just so sad, Like people are but republicans are happy and democrats are miserable and I'm like.

But republicans cannot do anything that's actually fun or enjoyable because the right is terrified of people enjoying themselves.

I think cancel culture is real

In this country, mostly conservatives participated in their own type of “cancel culture” by banning and even burning books, records or art by all kinds of people, often for religious reasons.
Church members in New Mexico burned Harry Potter books, which they considered “evil” and “satanic”

Yes, it's quite real. I know a few people who stepped out of line, usually younger, and got cancelled.

I've kept my views on the Asian massage parlor killings largely to myself out of fear of being cancelled. In addition to being cancelled is the fear of being cancelled which "chills speech." It's especially an issue with Academic research.

Agreed. Real but overblown and exaggerated. All of it.