I have to admit I have a bit of a cancel culture problem. The problem is not so much cancel culture, or criticism of it, or criticism of the criticism, as that I keep thinking I’m going to write the take that is going to crack the whole disagreement wide open. I cannot honestly bring myself to see the matter as a real problem. I understand; Americans have a censorious streak, they have a punitive streak, they are puritanical. I cannot bring myself to believe this is new or novel. I don’t think it is good, though which cases are actually bad and which are not is a matter of messy casuistry I admit I have very little patience for. I’m far more concerned about American punitiveness in a criminal justice context, or an immigration one. At any rate, I have something of a detached attitude towards the whole thing, yet can’t help but come back to it as something of an intellectual puzzle, despite being fully aware of the absurdity of that endeavor. What can I say? I have a bit of a compulsive personality.
Recently Scott Adams said some rather questionable things, and got his long running comic dropped from a number of newspapers. A number of the typical anti-cancel culture types have been quick to condemn Adams and claim that these quite literal cancellations by papers do not count as an example of what they typically criticize. Thomas Chatterton Williams insisted that “Cancel culture is really about when someone is called out and made an example of by a social media mob for transgressing a not-yet-agreed upon norm.” Since we all agree that the “classic super basic racism” that Adams engaged in is bad, social sanctions are justified, therefore it is different.
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