Be charitable, he could be talking about the Dixie Chicks or anchors that were fired for questioning the Iraq war. Or for the biggest example of modern cancel culture, Kaepernick's firing after targeting by the president.
Kaepernick and Dixie Chicks are obvious examples of "cancel culture" coming from the right, and many people on the left are more than happy to practice this in the other direction, in spite of recognizing how wrong it was in those cases.
You could put it that way. I haven’t encountered many people who “hate cancel culture” but are upset about what happened to Colin Kaepernick, even though it seems plain enough to me that he lost his job for expressing a political view. I’m sure they could invent a distinction when challenged on this but I don’t think it would rise above post hoc reasoning.
When you look at historic examples of cancel culture its almost absurd at how tame their offenses were. Dixie Chicks are another example that come to mind where critical but not controversial statements are made and it ruined people's careers.
Lol, do you really believe this? The first victim of what people call modern "cancel culture" were the Dixie Chicks (now just The Chicks) when they made an incredibly mild criticism of president Bush a few days before the invasion of Iraq during a concert in The UK. It costed them their position as one of the top country acts in the country.
> There are a lot of people that think this is cancel culture. Bobby Kotick is likely going to be "cancelled"/fired from Activision if their board has any sense in the next few days. Was he cancelled, or did his past behavior finally catch up to him?
He's being fired because of his actions, not his beliefs or speech. Nixon resigned because he broke the law.
There were two things that happened with Dixie Chicks, people calling into their radio stations requesting they be blacklisted, this is most definitely cancel culture.
They also offended their core audience who just stopped buying their records which isn't cancel culture. Maybe in 2003 you were excited they had to face consequences for sharing their beliefs, but I wasn't enthused about it then, and I'm not now.
Would it be healthy to live in a culture where Walmart fired every worker who pro-BLM?
Where Amazon asks anyone they hire how they feel about unions before hiring them?
>The war of northern aggression
I grew up in the south. I've heard this term before but I've never seen it in a single textbook or ever heard a teacher use it.
Can someone give me specifics on who's affected by "cancel culture"? It's a meaningless label to me.
I mean, I think Bill Cosby has been cancelled. Colin Kaepernick was for kneeling. And the lady who called the police on the black man in central park. Some of those may be unjustified. Is this really the biggest problem in society?
No. Just the ones that are most visible in your mind.
And you'd be foolish to assume that cancellation is a thing of the left. What happened to Colin Kaepernick? Or republicans that dared to impeach Trump? McCarthyism? Cancel culture is a tactic that conservatives have used for decades now, only recently adopted by the left.
In my mind, "cancel culture" refers to the phenomenon where an outraged group (usually on social media) seeks to retaliate against someone over a (possibly inferred) political opinion. Firing union organizers or harassing whistleblowers is bad, but doesn't fit into my mental model of cancel culture.
It's less that people are mob or anti-mob so much as pro their mob and anti the other mob. Don't forget that cancel culture is not an entirely left-wing phenomenon.
Plenty of the same people who rail against SJWs and leftists cancelling people would have no problems with cancelling Bill Maher, the Dixie Chicks or Colin Kaepernick.
Yes, it exists. Remember when Trump called for the cancellation of Kaepernick? The treatment that whistleblowers get? Freedom fries? Cancel culture is a deeply embedded component of US society.
The funniest part about "cancel culture" is that the same people who scream it's the worst and shouldn't be okay are the people who wanted to boycott the NFL when colin kaepernick kneeled to protest black violence.
The truth is, it's only "Cancel Culture" if it's against something they like
> These days it might be possible to "cancel" someone for something that they didn't even say/do
It always has been. And, often the “cancelling” has been total and irreversible, not, as it often is with the “cancel culture” of recent complaints, just a reduction in current popularity with a particular segment of society (frequently accompanied by profitable celebrity status with an opposing and at least roughly equivalent power social group.)
In fact, those complaining about modern “cancel culture” often make hyperbolic analogies to these historical, more total cancellings, such as lynchings.
Not defending cancel culture. But those who are complaining about it would be more credible if they didn’t themselves try to keep marginalized groups down themselves. Example: pretty much any opinion host on Fox News.
I've seen people get offended by celebrities with insensitive takes, but I've never seen anyone on HN get cancelled because of a comment. The worst I've seen is "this is wrong and here's why" or "I don't want to talk to you".
Generally I've seen people reach for "cancel culture" when:
1. Fear-mongering the left over perceived injustice.
2. Defending bad takes by tone-policing any disagreement.
Can you point to a comment by john_moscow where they've been 'cancelled'? Or maybe a comment by you?
First, to head off the flames: yes, what happened to the people in the article is terrible. Cooler heads should’ve prevailed.
But here’s a take: cancel culture is not new, it’s just changed direction and is scaring the pants off people who previously had the luxury of ignoring it (or taking advantage). What happened to Cafferty is a shame, but the article left out another person who was cancelled over a vicious lie: Emmett Till.
This depends on is being cancelled. It's not the left that cancelled Kapaernick or the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks or howled with rage that the Supreme Court - with the exception of three conservative justices - ruled their longstanding practice of cancelling gay people unconstitutional.
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