Perspectives

Cancel Culture Is Out Of Control!

Or at least the talk about it is

I have something controversial, radical and well-nigh incendiary to say about cancel culture.

I understand this is a polarizing topic. Twitter may erupt in outrage. But I have to speak my truth. Better sit down, maybe take a few stiff drinks to prepare yourself.

OK, here we go:

It’s only cancel culture if someone is actually canceled

I know I’m going out on a limb here. Let the outrage come pouring down. My legal defense fund will be up on GoFundMe soon. If I disappear and am never seen again, tell my wife I love her, and I’m sorry.

Consider a few examples.

Is it the end of the world if we err on the side of the less powerful once in a while?

Louis C.K.

The edgy comedian came under fire for various types of sexual misconduct over many years. In 2017, he admitted it was true and declared “I will now step back and take a long time to listen.”

A year later he was performing again. In August of 2021, he kicked off his latest tour with a sold-out show in Madison Square Garden.

He admitted to abusing women. He used his power and prestige to protect himself by threatening their careers. He generally acted like a complete POS, and some of it was likely against the law. Now four years later he’s once again selling out arenas. How’s that whole cancellation working out? It must be brutal.

It’s nothing more than criticism unless you actually lose something.

Aaron Rodgers

It was a stop-the-presses media circus when the NFL quarterback appeared on a sports talk show to complain the “woke mob” was canceling him for his anti-vaccine stance. There are two problematic holes in this narrative.

Problem #1: He wasn’t canceled for being anti-vaxx There have been several high-profile cases of athletes refusing to be vaccinated. After some abuse on social media, the storm has passed and it’s now largely ignored. Rodgers, however, is being mercilessly dragged on Twitter, late night comedy, and across much of sports media. Woke mob alert!

Sort of.

After coming down with COVID, it turned out Rodgers had “misled” (read: “lied”) about his vaccination status and violated league protocols. He also revealed he’s on ivermectin and taking health advice from Joe Rogan. His team is regarded as a Super Bowl favorite, but they lost the game he missed which could come back to bite them in the postseason.

In other words, there’s a case to be made that Mr. Rodgers deserved cancellation.

Problem #2: He wasn’t canceled It’s true he lost one sponsor, a healthcare company unhappy to be associated with an ivermectin-taking, Joe Rogan-consulting anti-vaxxer. Which makes complete sense. Other than that, it looks like he’ll get off scot-free besides people being mean to him on social media. He’ll be a punching bag for a while, then he’ll go into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Joe Biden, the supposedly anti-religion presidential candidate in 2020, is a life-long Catholic whose inauguration was basically a church service. May I be excused from listening to Christians whine about oppression?

Chris Pratt

Apparently the actor posted an innocuous Tweet about his wife and baby that inexplicably landed him in hot water. It was the woke mob rising up to take down a good man for the sin of being a person of faith!

A couple of small quibbles.

One is the contentious relationship between Pratt and Twitter goes back years — this is not some one-off sneak attack. The other is he’s been one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors since 2015, and according to IMDb his plate is extremely full for the next few years. If that’s cancellation, where do I sign up?

Be suspicious when the bar to admission is low

Out of curiosity, I went to the conservative Washington Times to see who they thought had been victimized. The “Top 10 recent examples of cancel culture” list included: batcrap crazy conspiracy theorist Mike (My Pillow) Lindell; über-popular Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham; Harry Potter author J.K Rowling; Goya Foods, whose sales increased; and U.S. presidents Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson, who had their names taken off a few schools.

There were more significant examples, but how bad could it be if the above make the top ten?

It has to be more than online criticism

My definition of Twitter is “an intergalactic effing freakshow, where millions of people behave badly for absolutely no good reason.” Any opinions you can conceive of — and more — are being Tweeted this very minute. Yet if someone is looking for a narrative, suddenly everything there should be taken seriously? Please.

I’m certain being attacked online hurts. I sure as hell don’t want to be. But we have to agree it’s nothing more than criticism unless you actually lose something.

It’s not whether someone is being silenced, it’s only a question of who

Nikole Hannah-Jones

This name may be less well-known than the cases above, but the story is familiar: admired, award-winning professor denied tenure because of controversial work. Woke mob! Whatever happened to academic freedom?

Except this professor is a Black woman, “canceled” because conservative groups leaned on the board of trustees to reject the department’s tenure recommendation, a very unusual step.

So that may have been a curve ball, but it shouldn’t have been. What the pearl-clutchers seem to forget is it’s not whether someone is being silenced, it’s only a question of who.

Powerful men abuse that power to silence their victims, mostly women. Tolerating racist words and actions comes at the expense of people of color. Joe Biden, the supposedly anti-religion presidential candidate in 2020, is a life-long Catholic whose inauguration was basically a church service.

On that last topic, I see Gen. Michael Flynn is calling for an officially Christian America. U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a 2019 speech that “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” Ted Cruz, the Evangelical choice in the 2016 GOP primary, said “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this country.” (This in answer to a question posed by a pastor who is on record asserting that homosexuals deserve the death penalty.)

So may I be excused from listening to Christians whine about what they laughably call “oppression?” Believe whatever you want, I couldn’t care less — as long as you leave me out of it.

I don’t dislike religious conservatives because of their faith, I dislike their faith because of them.

For the sake of honesty: yes, cancel culture will claim some undeserving victims

From the beginning America has been run by the wealthy — whites, Christians, and men. Now things have changed. Well, changed a little, anyway. So is it true that every now and then members of those privileged classes will be treated unfairly?

Absolutely. And it’s very unfortunate. It would be great if we could always be fair to everyone — but that isn’t going to happen. We’re humans, there will always be situations in which somebody gets screwed.

It’s a fact billionaire J.K. Rowling lost book sales after comments perceived as anti-trans. But LGBTQ people put their lives and careers on the line every day just for being. Who is actually the oppressed party in this scenario?

Worst case, what does it mean if the haters of cancel culture are right? It means we’ve reached a point where a segment of the population is overzealous in protecting trans people, rather than being content to see them trampled underfoot.

It’s a shame when someone’s career is at risk for offending the overly sensitive. Why isn’t it a shame when someone might lose their career — or their life — for coming out, or speaking up, or in any way offending the power structure? Why do those who hate the mob most seem to be the ones sustaining the conditions that woke it in the first place?

So rather than reflexively giving the benefit of the doubt to dominant groups, maybe we should ask this question: is it the end of the world if we err on the side of the less powerful once in a while?