Cancel "Cancel Culture"

For John, BLUF:  This is a month old, but still timely.  The Writer thinks "the phrase cancel culture is too vague — a distraction from a deeper examination of power in society.".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why ‘Cancel Culture’ Is a Distraction

Here is the sub-headline:

A reporter’s last thoughts before putting the phrase to rest.

From The New York Times, by Reporter Jonah Engel Bromwich, 14 August 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

I made a promise to myself. Having had the privilege of appearing on “The Daily,” and having used that privilege to discuss “cancel culture” over the course of not one, but two episodes, I would not write about the phrase ever again.

Then I got an email from a colleague who kindly asked me if I would write this newsletter.

If you listened to the episodes, you know that I started thinking about the phrase “cancel culture” in 2018. That year, the word “canceled,” which had originally circulated as a joke on Black Twitter, began to be used more widely to describe a dynamic frequently playing out on social media. A person would say or do something that was offensive to others, and those people would call out the offender.

Lisa Nakamura, a professor I talked to then, called it a “cultural boycott” — an agreement not to amplify, signal-boost or give money to the person who’s been canceled. In some cases, as the phenomenon developed, “cancellation” could turn punitive, even causing some offenders to be fired from their jobs.

People tend to see cancellation as either wholly good — there are new consequences for saying or doing racist, bigoted or otherwise untenable things — or wholly bad, in that people can lose their reputations and in some cases their jobs, all because a mob has taken undue offense to a clumsy or out-of-context remark. Personally, I think it’s best viewed not as either positive or negative, but as something else: a new development in the way that power works — a development brought about by social media.

I take the Writer's point.  For someone to be fired because of a tweet storm seems a little unfair.  And the actions suggest a "Zero Defects" approach to life.  Sadly, we are dealing with humans and there are always defects, mistakes.  Defects can be reducted by having people pay more attention to what they are doing.  We should work on that.  But, we need a little humanity and humility.

Pointing out mistakes, errors, slips, is fine.  However, it should not automatically trip the guillotine.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff