Cancel culture is just another phrase for political correctness, which, despite being treated like a relatively new ‘threat’, reached pop culture status nearly three decades ago.
Cancel culture is conveniently seen as a creation of the left, despite decades (centuries?) of conservative led attempts to ban various publications, movies, songs, and even the little P&G stars-moon logo on Crest toothpaste tubes that allegedly inspired Satanic worship.
Target, Nike, Keurig, Yeti, and the NFL have all been relatively recent targets of rightwing boycott attempts (albeit ineffectual and limited).
And then we have Lord God Hypocrite Trump, who openly whined about ‘cancel culture’ while literally trying to halt the publication of two books about him. Which leads to the greater absolute fact that Trump spent the past four years stoking anti-PC grievances while simultaneously trying to cancel culture the hell out of intelligence, honesty, decency, democracy, and even tens of thousands of lives.
Oh sure, PC culture can get wacky, suffocatingly sanctimonious, and, in academia, it can discourage needed, respectful conversation. Then again, at least during the past 60 or so years, college students have always been at the forefront of self-righteous vigor, but a) most grow out of it, and b) their arguments usually have legitimate bases no matter how obnoxious the messenger.
However, this is no longer just about piously getting off by trashing someone because they used “chairman” instead of “chair” or “chairperson.”
That is, at this stage, anti-PC complaints from the right typically center more on the “oppressive” assault against outright bigotry, chauvinism, and fascism.
If you say that lynching a person because of their skin color is bad, you’re quickly accused of virtue signaling or being a social justice warrior (to note, accusing a “libtard” of virtue signaling is, in and of itself, a form of rightwing virtue signaling, so, you know, the circle spins and spins…).
As Billy Bragg rightly pointed out, what these folks are usually seeking is not freedom but license, license to say or do anything without taking any personal responsibility or suffering any consequences.
They want to shout the ‘n-word’ whenever and wherever without drawing any potential reprimand. They want to be able to treat LGBT people like second class citizens without confronting any protests (i.e., they want to ‘cancel culture’ anyone who doesn’t agree with their hateful discriminatory practices).
The problem with ‘political correctness’ is that it compartmentalizes ethics into a self-appointed politized box, which either side can then exploit for whatever their needs. But the bottom line is that refusing to use the n-word or any other ethnic slur is NOT a matter of being PC; it’s a matter of fundamental common decency. It’s called being a good human being. And the right’s appropriation of PC invariably indicts decency and vilifies and contorts tolerance.
You’re a hypocritical leftist if you demand tolerance but fail to tolerate racism, whereby we must then play a dehumanizingly nihilistic game to equate “intolerance of hatred” with “hatred,” as though they both demand equal respect. Never a fan of moral relativism when it was pushed by the left, and I’m certainly not one when it’s pushed by the right.
If your dialogue promotes white, male, heterosexual, Christian superiority, then yeah, I will gladly ‘cancel culture’ you, because you are a regressive, ruinous agent of devolution. Does this in turn make some sort of “fascist”; well, as much as it would make me a fascist for demanding that people not rape or murder.
But we’re just talking about words. Well, Goebbels on stage one day spewing out “just words”, and before you know it, between 50 million to 70 million people dead across the planet. Hate speech poses serious threats, whether in terms of feeding systemic bigotry or even inciting genocide.
Also, any argument that the left is attempting to impose one way is egregiously ignorant of the gaping ideological fractures between moderate liberals, progressive, and the actual “radical left.” But then again, when there are so many people who scream “communist” when encountering anyone left of “Mein Kampf”, what can you do?
Happy Holi---damn, the war on Christmas almost had me…um…Merry Christmas! And Happy Holidays, since Christmas ain’t the only game in town this time of year.
