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1. "Even when we can manage to agree that somebody's crossed what we agree is the line, we may nevertheless differ sharply about gravity of the transgression and the price they ought to pay for it." https://modelcitizen.substack.com/p/undefined-cancel-game/comments
2. Well, yes, which is why many folks started criticizing political correctness in the 1980s and today warn of cancel culture. And yes, they push back when someone gets hounded from a job or harassed online for a joke or unpopular opinion.
3. It is perfectly normal for individuals to gripe of "political correctness" or "cancel culture" and critiquing a particular example of it. That is how the bounds of OK and not-OK get established. Debating the bounds of piety, propriety, etc. are what humans do.
4. As is debating the security of punishment of transgressions. In the early and mid 20th century there were battles over what to do about individuals who spoke in favor of communism. Some wanted them jailed, others wanted them blacklisted from industries. Today, that debate...
5. looks archaic. Hardly anyone feels a guy should get fired for wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt off hours and encouraging govt nationalization of corporations. Indeed, meting out punishments...
6. for that strikes us antithetical to our value of open debate and speech. For the.most part, today the bounds of acceptable speech are far wider than they used to be. Remember folks smashing music albums in the 80s?7
7. Indeed, folks today complain of cancel culture precisely because the bounds of the acceptable have grown wider YET today we have schools, universities, companies, and social media mobs hammering individuals. 8
8. Blasting someone for spewing anti Semitism make sense. Blasting someone for a joke that was clearly not an incitement to violence is excessive and, frankly, nothing more than a cheap shot.
9. Anyway, an open, tolerant society requires both thick skin & tolerance. So let us continue to negotiate what is in bounds & let's also try to be a little more thoughtful in how we respond to transgressions. Maybe they are not transgressions. Maybe they are not. Check yourself.
