What saddens me the most about the current public culture is not the “cancel” element but something else for which we lack a word

Let me give you an example. Belgium is probably the worst managed and more tragic Covid story. But because the PM is a woman (first ever) and a liberal, the fact disappears from every analysis

What do you call this culture? What is the best word to express the principle revealed in the example? It’s a kind of superstition culture: you look everywhere for evidence or signs of your beliefs. Or maybe a form of paranoia culture

Just saw this. A good example of what I have in mind https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n14/pankaj-mishra/flailing-states

We could call it cancel culture, but cancel mean cancelling everything in the world that does not fit with your beliefs. I would prefer another term though

But perhaps we have a term: parochialism. Certainly the driving force is to interpret the world in terms of what is seen as true in your village or parish, your group

No, it is not confirmation bias. It is conscious, deliberate, a strategy - not a bias

As someone said maybe go with wokeism. Two birds with one stone: also get a definition for wokeism. The deliberate disposition to be aware only of what our principles dictate we should perceive

Example: you look around and see no possible way anyone could have been infected during the protests. Not that you dismiss it: no, you never even become aware of possibility. But immediately hone in on the possibility that a Trump rally could have triggered a massive Covid wave

Wokeism does not work because it would limit the phenomenon to the left. So let’s go with “selection culture” (not as bias but as culture). Or then as someone suggested, the good old term “censorship” (not as policy but as culture)