Read on Twitter
A thread.
Here's the thing about "cancel culture."
You can either treat it as if it's a unique threat coming from the SJ left.
Or you can actually take a stand about the problem, in a fair way that holds everyone to similar standards.
But you can't do both.
Here's the thing about "cancel culture."
You can either treat it as if it's a unique threat coming from the SJ left.
Or you can actually take a stand about the problem, in a fair way that holds everyone to similar standards.
But you can't do both.
Is there a problem on the left of some people being too dogmatic and lacking in mercy or a sense of proportion? And that sometimes manifests in angries on the internet overreacting and people getting fired? And this can chill speech and make some people fearful of dissent?
Yes!
Yes!
Is that problem unique to the left? Hell no. https://twitter.com/AJENews/status/1174427646056423424
Hell no.
Do the anti-"cancel culture" people spend any time criticizing their own intolerance of dissent? Did they object when the IDW's Jordan Peterson tweeted links to students who criticized him to his enormous angry fan base?
If so, they did it quietly. https://thevarsity.ca/2017/10/30/jordan-peterson-doxxes-two-student-activists/
If so, they did it quietly. https://thevarsity.ca/2017/10/30/jordan-peterson-doxxes-two-student-activists/
This week, a journalist who criticized a Vox writer for signing the petition had to leave the internet because - after many leaders of the anti-"cancel culture" crowd demonized her and falsely claimed she tried to get someone fired - the abuse and threats got too awful.
Why is that not cancel culture?
Because it's coming from them, so by their definition it can't be cancel culture.
Because it's coming from them, so by their definition it can't be cancel culture.
It got so bad that Jesse Singal eventually took a vicious tweet down and asked his fans to stop harassing her.
I'm glad he did. But did he stop to ask, "if 'cancel culture' is something so distinctive about the SJ left, why are my own very anti-SJW fans cancelling people?"
I'm glad he did. But did he stop to ask, "if 'cancel culture' is something so distinctive about the SJ left, why are my own very anti-SJW fans cancelling people?"
The anti-"cancel culture" people are eager and willing to get people fired, when they can. Remember when they decided - wrongly - that reporter Carson King had cancelled someone, so they got King fired? (This was less than a year ago). https://twitter.com/barrydeutsch/status/1177644197936914433
Time and time again, when I've pointed this out to the more willing to talk anti-SJW crowd - a minority of that crowd - they've said the same thing.
"We'd talk about it if we heard about it. You can't blame us for not writing about what we haven't heard about."
"We'd talk about it if we heard about it. You can't blame us for not writing about what we haven't heard about."
But the reason they didn't hear about these stories isn't random chance. It's that - consciously or not - they've chosen online bubbles that don't discuss these stories, and news sources that don't report these stories.
This week, a very prominent anti-cancel-culture intellectual picked up a story from my twitter feed (he credited me) about "right-wing" cancel culture. But when he tweeted about it, he made it "stupid" cancel culture.
There's an unspoken rule not to hold the right accountable.
There's an unspoken rule not to hold the right accountable.
(To be clear, I'm grateful he picked up the story. It deserves to be seen by more people, and approximately one zillion more people read his tweets than ever see mine.)
(I'm not even getting into the way that any criticism at all from the SJ left is now branded "cancel culture." Check out this tweet, from an account with over a million followers.) https://twitter.com/HotNewHipHop/status/1280357509430009857
I've been saying for years that I want people to be kinder, to not go after people's jobs, to let responses be local and proportionate instead of justice being dealt by angries on the internet.
I will continue saying that.
I will continue saying that.
But I'm not going to sign on to the war against "cancel culture." Because that war is being run by people who are biased, who are using that war as a club for beating the SJ left, and who constantly let right-wing "cancellations" off the hook.
End of rant.
End of rant.
Errata: I wrote "Carson King" when I should have written "Aaron Calvin." Sorry for the mistake!
(Ritual shaking of fist at Twitter for the lack of an edit button goes here.)
(Ritual shaking of fist at Twitter for the lack of an edit button goes here.)
