"Cancel culture" is a phrase thrown around to ignite outrage over perceived injustices or as a supposed reflection of how intolerant American society has become, with this intolerance being encouraged or feared based upon the context--and often a person's political philosophy. With a social media post or viral article, reputations can be destroyed as all sorts of fools who are not even consistent with their own premises believe, say, and do emotionalistic things when some celebrity or politician is targeted. While it is not always manifested or discussed in a political context, with even some celebrities talking about how cancel culture frightens people into avoiding artistic experimentation, the most controversial and philosophically charged ways the public generally uses the words often pertain to politics, which is not surprising in a society where politics is erroneously thought to be the heart of reality instead of just a layer on top of things far more foundational/deep than itself, like logic, epistemology, morality, and theology.
The technological means of reading about or expressing cancel culture primarily pertains to the internet, and since the internet is a relatively recent part of human civilization, it is not uncommon to see people talk as if the practices of cancel culture all of the sudden sprung out of contemporary factors. Prominent social media usage and the sudden popularity of the phrase "cancel culture" itself might make it seem like this is a new phenomenon to some, but only the form it now takes is actually novel among the events of the historical record. After all, every propaganda campaign to slander someone, every excommunication, every slanderous witch hunt, and every just or unjust execution throughout all of human history was about negating someone's influence or ruining their image or lives, sometimes by ending their life itself. Cancel culture is actually at its historically mildest level at this point compared to how extreme it could be in other eras. Still, pretending like cancel culture is a sudden intrusion into human life is a safer way to stir up internet engagement, and so liars or emotionalists knowingly or unknowingly promote this inaccuracy.
Some, mainly conservatives, who call for the cancellation of cancel culture despite the hypocrisy of doing this still try to contribute to cancel culture even as they allegedly oppose it. Really, they are eager to cancel their political opponents simply because they already dislike them, and sometimes rightfully so, but they will rage against the concept of "cancel culture" the moment it impacts them unfavorably. Like practically everything else, conservatives and liberals, too, usually support or attack ideas like the tenets of cancel culture only whenever it is beneficial to them, not whenever it is a valid reaction in light of the nature of a fallacy or offense being "cancelled." Many people will literally call for cancel culture to ruin someone's reputation if it is someone from the other of the two major political parties only to say that cancel culture is an abomination when it is used to make their own lives more difficult.
Now, even more aggressive forms of cancel culture are not necessarily evil as long as there is no slander, hypocrisy, malice, disproportionate hostility, or actual abuse in how the recipient of this negative attention is treated. It is not as if it is some demonstrable truth that no one deserves hatred or opposition or even death at the hands of other humans, and the only evidence in favor of a moral system (that of Christianity) makes a moral framework where certain executions are obligatory the probably moral system. How someone feels about having their worldview or deeds exposed to the world or having hostility directed towards them online does not matter, given that they are not being mistreated in the process. Regardless of the actual offenses or treatment of the person being cancelled, however, most people who rage against or passionately participate in cancel culture just do so for arbitrary reasons and often even out of hypocrisy.
More people can hear about the so-called cancelling of figures due to the internet, and since most people are non-rationalists, it is the case that almost all support for or attacks on the idea of cancel culture are held to on irrational grounds. Whatever the idiotic reasons for non-rationalists taking either stance, acting as if cancel culture itself is new or encouraged by only one philosophical-political group is asinine, for neither social media nor the general internet is necessary to systematically silence or oppose a worldview, a person, or a faction. Cancel culture has its positive applications and the reach of the internet amplifies that. What so many people insist they believe about the matter is in no way positive, just assumptions or contradictions insects look to for subjective comfort or out of social pressure.
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