Everyone has some complicity in cancel culture, yet we associate this behaviour exclusively with the progressive. Why?

The answer lies with our familiarity with the reason for cancellation. If something is obviously offensive or dangerous, we are not troubled when it is cancelled. For example, we do not complain about the cancellation of terrorism because it is widely agreed that such conduct is unacceptable.

But if something is less clearly offensive, we notice when it is cancelled. We wonder why. We feel aggrieved by the intrusion into our liberty. For example, the cancellation of casual sexism is controversial because there is a certain tolerance for this behaviour and a sense that one is entitled to engage in it.

Cancel culture is more conspicuous when the premise is less familiar. The progressive seeks to cancel entrenched social patterns of behaviour and the offensiveness of such conduct is not universally understood. Hence progressive cancel culture is more conspicuous and cancellation is largely associated with the progressive.

_{Isamu Drayya, October 2022}

NEXT

The myth of cancel culture as democracy

Return to cancellation sub menu.