How would you define cancel culture? Please give some examples.

Cancel culture is a term used by rightwing historical revisionists who want to get the intellectually vulnerable to believe there once was an Eden, a ‘garden’ back in the days when things were ‘great’. They want them to believe that ‘progress’ is a negative, that they need to return to the mythical garden days. 

For US right wing revisionists examples would be the days when the confederate army fought to maintain slavery, when Jim Crow laws were still enforced, when separate but equal prevailed, when women were not allowed to vote, when racist jokes were acceptable.

“Left, Right, Middle, Up-side-down,...” Doesn’t matter. - ALL media and the BIG corporations ‘continue to get rich’ from it.-

We ‘predict’ this “Have Your Say” will hit over 130 comments in 24 hours.

Cancel culture is an extrajudicial system of punishment framed as a form of retribution for past or present deeds. The accused's actions are measured against known and unknown norms decided by a collective with the punishment being pressure put on to the accused's business and social relationships in hopes that ties are severed, thus limiting the financial resources available and the influence those resources bring for the accused.

Have I missed anything?

@isoducky 8:47a. - You pretty much ‘covered it’.

So, this ‘culture’ doesn’t belong to any ‘specific ideology’. It’s a collective ‘perceived power’, accessible to any ideology and perpetuated by the various forms of media. Thus, on a larger economic scale, the ‘collectives’ are being manipulated and used to increase profits and eliminate other ‘competition’?

May we repost, when needed?

An excuse to avoid addressing real issues.

Cancel culture is people being called out on dubious behaviour/actions/statements. It's a boycott, in effect.

I like the term "consequence culture" - if you're acting an offensive idiot, expect there to be consequences. At the very least, you'll be called out on it.

Incidentally, boycotts have been with us for centuries. The name came from poor Irish tenants standing up to landlords, around 140 years ago.

A hundred years later in Ireland, there was the famous Dunnes Stores boycott, where members of the public supported striking workers who refused to sell South African produce, during the apartheid regime.

@ToastedHeretic 11:40am Just a fair question, with regards your comments seeking out a definition for ‘cancel culture’: Wouldn’t there also be an equal counterpart, an “*offended idiot”?*

An excuse to avoid addressing real issues.

Calling 'cancel culture' is shiny squirrel pointing. It's another term the far right and their media use to distract their base so they do NOT focus on real issues like an economy leaving dozens of millions of Americans (including many in the far right base) behind while the plutocrats add billions to their personal accounts.

The far right and their media have conditioned their base to knee jerk when they hear terms like 'cancel'. They know most in their base will not bother to look beneath the headlines to try to understand why potato head and Dr. Seuss businesses revised their products.

Throughout history every culture has gone through periods when something old is discarded and replaced by something else. Caravans move on.

I like the term "consequence culture" - if you're acting an offensive idiot, expect there to be consequences.

Plenty of things are offensive. I’m an idiot compared to some people. Some people find the word ‘idiot’ offensive.

Who is it okay to offend and who has been defined as protected is very important here.

Anyone that questions the openly politically-motivated decision making on the part of the WHO to provide cover to its COVID-source patron, China? -You Tube will summarily ban ALL their content from their platform.

Anyone objects to a chicken chain restaurant openly providing moral, verbal and financial support to the beliefs and practices of its religiously active founders? -Launch movement to ban the franchise from all colleges, and try to put them into bankruptcy.

Anyone offended by actor Gina Carano's factually correct tweet, that the Nazis rode into power on the backs of violent street protests and mob hatred we now can similarly witness on our own city streets today? -Pressure her employer Disney to fire her, which they do.

Ray Bradbury perhaps summarized "cancel culture" most effectively, in a book written almost 70 years ago, Fahrenheit 451: "It didn't come from the government down, there was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship to start with, no. Technology, Mass Exploitation and Minority Pressure carried the day. And we must all be made to think “alike”; not “everyone born free and equal” like the Constitution says, but everyone MADE equal...”

You will think like they want you to think, or you'll be removed from the conversation; erased from the town square. "Free Speech" is the enemy for the activists behind Cancel Culture. Forget 451: this is The Road To Totalitarianism 101. Step one: "non-acceptable" thoughts will NOT be tolerated.

@ snowymountainhell

yes you may

Anyone offended by actor Gina Carano's factually correct tweet, that the Nazis rode into power on the backs of violent street protests and mob hatred we now can similarly witness on our own city streets today? -Pressure her employer Disney to fire her, which they do.

Must admit, I'm offended by Hollywood right wingers with huge followings and various platforms to compare themselves as victims, to compare their suffering with that of millions exterminated.

Forget 451: this is The Road To Totalitarianism 101. Step one: "non-acceptable" thoughts will NOT be tolerated.

People getting upset and whipping themselves into a fury over plastic potato toys.

You heard it here first, folks.

In the US, the very definition of “Cancel Culture” as of today applies to the dominant power structure which is now controlled by the far left progressive liberals, Democrats and socialists with a sight on trying to reimagine and rebuild the US into a radical far left socialist paradigm with the government being the power centrum of a new ideology while erasing our history and culture be it dismantling our statues, doing away with our National Anthem, not allowing for dissent and silencing any and all conservative and opposing viewpoints, abolishing anything and everything the left fears is an impediment that can derail their plans to turn the US into a one party system, authoritative run State. We see this cancel culture growing like a cancerous tumor and watching people being erased for having opposing opinions the left doesn’t like or agrees with. The founding fathers didn’t envision a one-sided democracy that benefits any particular group or party.

The US is far from perfect and has made mistakes all throughout its history, all countries and nations have, but the US has always been the beacon of democracy and freedom and that precious gift has never been more under siege than it is now.

@bass4funk defined it pretty well.

As for an example, just the other day the banjo player from Mumford & Sons faced the wrath of the far-left crazies for daring to praise Andy Ngo's book on Antifa. He was castigated on social media and issued a grovelling apology in response, and said he would be taking time away from the band to reflect on his misdeeds.

Pathetic. He should have told these jackals where to go. Apologising only encourages them.

The idea that democrats want to transform the US into a radical far left socialist country is ridiculous

I wish it were ridiculous, but that’s not what we are seeing unfolding before our very eyes and if you can’t see it, well.....ok...I tend to believe my eyes and not left feel good comforting indoctrination talking points.

As for an example, just the other day the banjo player from Mumford & Sons faced the wrath of the far-left crazies for daring to praise Andy Ngo's book on Antifa.

Exactly, when it gets to the point where you have to apologize for reading a gay conservative journalists book that has documented the ongoing cancel culture attacking him and trying to silence him is just disgusting and repugnant.

He was castigated on social media and issued a grovelling apology in response, and said he would be taking time away from the band to reflect on his misdeeds. 

Pathetic. He should have told these jackals where to go. Apologising only encourages them.

Exactly, it’s the worst thing you can do and that’s why I loved Piers Morgan response after he left his own show, he basically reiterated his point of view and refused to apologize and this from a staunch liberal, good for him.

Cancel culture=Silencing of others being done by whoever dominates society at the time.

Nothing new. It's been going on throughout history.

I am admittedly a leftist far more left than most that say they are left.

But for anyone to claim that we are not in the middle of a cancel culture is being dishonest.

When one calls for the banning of books like those of Mark Twain written over a 100 years ago and that were previously criticised for their portraying slavery for what it really was and how horrible it was but now they are being banned because they use the language of the time something that needs to be remembered.

When books like the Tintin series are being banned because people don't like how some groups are portrayed but where in those books the villans are more often white and the victims are not and the books highly the plight of certain groups from native Americans to the then black market slavery.

When social media forces the cancellation of contracts between a black American poet and the Dutch and Catalan translators both highly skilled because they are not Black.

Then you have cancel culture.

Imagine if a white writer decided that only white people could translate his or her works, would that be acceptable? We all know what outrage that would bring.

There is addressing past wrongs and making the world more of an equal playing field.

Then there is going of the deep end and trying to erase facts and history, to sterilize everything we and future generations see and know, going overboard in trying to fix something by creating a bigger monster that leads to people being frightened to say anything lest they find themselves accused of doing or saying something that possibly offends someone despite it being the truth or factual.

But for anyone to claim that we are not in the middle of a cancel culture is being dishonest.

We've had cancel culture for a couple of decades now. The right have been canceling others for their views for nearly two decades. As a result, a far-left, very vocal group sprung up in response. This is how the real-world works - actions result in reactions.

Much of the left-wing cancel culture is rooted in trying to wrong rights - stop the oppression of minorities. A lot of it is pretty overboard. But to be fair, they are trying to correct injustices, unlike the far right cancel culture that does things like canceling republicans who would admit they want health care for their people, or that Trump lost the democratic election in which he got less votes.

But lets also give up this silly idea that anything is actually canceled. Pretty much everything canceled is still out there to be accessed. You can still get a Mr. Potatoehead. You can still find the Dr. Seuss books. You can still find Louis CK doing stand-up. You can still buy Morgan Wallen's music.

Republicans regularly create laws that disadvantage minorities. Look at their current war on voting - in the past election, the claim was never that Trump won, it was that the rules let too many people vote. Now Republican state congresses are on a mission to ensure that minorities who were allowed to vote, winning the election for Biden, aren't allowed to vote next time.

How does that relate to cancel culture? This is complete hogwash, if that were true Obama would never have won the Presidency twice with over 92% of registered black voters casting their vote for this guy, people like Eric Holder, Oprah, Susan Rice, Colin Powell, and so on, too many to count, blacks are the least oppressed group, let alone canceled group. The left wants to cancel a skunk, Dr. Suess, shame musicians, and canceling them for voicing an opposing viewpoint and yet, Rap Music with a lot of its vile lyrics like Cardi B. would never be censored. A skunk chasing after a pinstriped cat is bad, but a classless artist writing a song about WAP is ok? This is the true and real reason as to why the country is falling apart and that is because one group of people are afraid of retribution from another group based on skin color and minority status and as long as the left grievance industry continues to perpetuate this nonsense that a minority group is an oppressed group the country will never heal and to tell blacks and make think they are suffering from victimhood and whites are forced to feel white guilt is beyond disrespectful and repugnant. 

Americans like to let themselves off the hook by pretending that ignorance of the results of their support/actions excuses them from culpability for them. It's extremely American - it's a country absolutely overloaded with people who have been taught that they don't have to take responsibility for their actions.

Hardly, the left is trying to instill that every one that is white is responsible for the social and economic downfall of the black community when it is the black community that continues to vote for the exact same policies again, and again, and again and nothing ever changes, their voice is heard, their complaints are taken into consideration and the government appeases and capitulates to their demands and still they feel oppressed? They feel silenced? Absolutely not even close to the truth. The US has some racial problems but they're not the only ones, the same can be said about blacks living in Europe where their voices are less heard compared to the States where their voices will always be heard and even more now than ever. This is just another sad ruse to make it seem that every white person is just out to get people of color gleefully and pounding them into racial submission, what a joke. As the country continues to move forward and on the jihad of canceling anything the left doesn't like they are indeed planting the seeds of resentment and hate and it's just a matter of time before it blows up and badly and that would be a horrific tragedy.

How does that relate to cancel culture?

Canceling minorities.

This is complete hogwash, if that were true Obama would never have won the Presidency twice

I hope you were trolling, and don't actually think that is a logical conclusion. I'd hate to think someone could be so stupid as to lack the intelligence to see the logical fallacy in that conclusion, I'd rather think they were just being nefarious and trolling.

The left wants to cancel a skunk, Dr. Suess

The left never canceled any of these. Both publishers decided to not publish them anymore. They're still out there though, hardly canceled.

But of course, your position is typical of the right. Oppression of the freedom of publishers to decided which of their own content they no longer wish to publish. Typical of the authoritarian restriction of freedoms of the right.

Much of the left-wing cancel culture is rooted in trying to wrong rights - stop the oppression of minorities. A lot of it is pretty overboard. But to be fair, they are trying to correct injustices, unlike the far right cancel culture that does things like canceling republicans who would admit they want health care for their people, or that Trump lost the democratic election in which he got less votes.

But lets also give up this silly idea that anything is actually canceled. Pretty much everything canceled is still out there to be accessed. You can still get a Mr. Potatoehead. You can still find the Dr. Seuss books. You can still find Louis CK doing stand-up. You can still buy Morgan Wallen's music.

"Cancel culture" is of course a right-wing pejorative used to attack a certain group of liberals and to defend a reactionary stance. I think the very question asked by JT effectively accepts this pejorative. I see that very few of those from the right in the comments above are able to provide many good examples of "cancel culture" - we are still able to watch Gone With the Wind and many other things that have supposedly been banned.

I am more troubled by some of the "de-platforming" that has happened at some university, with activist students objecting to speakers with views that they do not agree with. The feminist Germaine Greer was blocked from speaking at a British university for an opinion she held on transgender women, for example.

Cancel culture is political correctness in another dress. Both are overdone.

Many parallels with the purges and book-burnings in some states in the early to mid 20th century preceding their plunge into authoritarianism. The truth, facts, skepticism and free speech become more and more dangerous for individuals to express while the requirement to maintain uniform "correct" thinking becomes all the more important.

"Think different" (No! Don't think different!)

The removal of statues of Confederate leaders erected long after the USA civil war I see as understandable.

But here is where as I previously pointed out things get out out hand and moved from understandable into the strange world of cancel culture.

Now the removal of Lincoln statues are being demanded this includes the Emancipation Memorial statue which is ironic seeing it was commissioned and paid for by freed slaves.

People now have all forms of problems with every leader from our past especially if they are white.

The statues of Sir John A MacDonald are being removed because a long list of whatever they can place on it without any regards for the Time it all took place.

But while all that is being done other are being recognised in memorials while ignoring the wrongs they did often to their own kind, we forget that much of the slave trade was only possible by the powerful ruling tribes in Africa capturing people from smaller rivals to sell to the Europeans.

We ignore while memorials to native Americans leaders are created and that those leaders first joined with and often lead in the total or near total annihilation of their rival native American tribes but for some strange reason all seem ready to just let that all go.

Yes cancel culture does now exist what started as a need to correct history and explain facts is now the removal and denial of the past and I fear it will not end until all has been sanitised beyond recognition.

Eradicating Histroy, Deleting Everything the Left disagrees with, Ignoring reality, Being Butthurt about anything and everything .

IF equal participation made available across ALL media, perhaps we could ALL come to our own conclusions and to a better understanding of ‘cancel culture’.

I find it funny, how something not political (cancel culture) has only been able to exemplified through right vs left politics. It kind of shows the level of the conversation that can be had here.

Here are some examples of what is not cancel culture.

The Dr. Suess foundation stoping the prodcution of some books is not cancel culture. That decision was made internally in an attempt to protect it's brand. This is self-censorship and everyone does it.

The Amanda Goreman situation with translation contracts is not cancelation as there was no intentional error made by the translators. This is a case of racism and subjective favoritism.

Here are some examples of current cancellation attempts:

Hass F1 and Nikita Mazepin are dealing with fan backlash after Mazepin was seen on posted instagram committing a taboo of the 2010's. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending where you stand, Hass is not in the position to do anything as Mazepin has some strong backers.

Jeremy Renner is currently fighting for his reputation amid an on going fight with his ex-wife. We still don't know how this will end.

Collen Kapernick was cancelled by the NFL not just for his politics, but for the intersectional relationship his position, playing skills, and politics would interact with team dynamics. He was the #2 quarterback when he started taking a knee. Press began to focus on that and the starter lost the locker rooms confidence and later his position. Any organization who saw this knew if they hired Kapernick the story of a football team fight to win a championship would come second to a fight for equality.

Long post, I hope this helps get people back on track.

The left wants to cancel a skunk, Dr. Suess

The right are more concerned with cartoons and platic toys than the lives of the marginalized and oppressed.

but the US has always been the beacon of democracy and freedom and that precious gift has never been more under siege than it is now.

See January 6th for an example on how democracy and freedom was endangered by the far right and their online supporters.

My example of the British government cancelling the freedom to demonstrate in the UK, specifically targeted at BLM and Extinction Rebellion, was deleted. It does make one wonder...

There has been an increase in traffic to the site, of right leaning posters. It makes sense to delete rabble rousing leftist propaganda and cater to the conservative, mostly American demographic.

We find it so humorous/ridiculous to see the advertisements of Dr.s smoking in the fifties, but scowl and/or avoid so many other fifties statements that somehow carry more weight.

Here is my favourite example.

On several university campuses this started.

Students complained and wanted the menu of the school cafeteria changed because they had "Croque monsieur" and "Croque Madame".

This spread to demands being made towards restaurants off campus also.

Now what was the problem?

Well by using Monsieur and Madame it was not inclusive of all the others that do not identify as male or female.

I am now waiting for the calls to rename The Flying Scotsman to something like the flying scotsperson.

See January 6th for an example on how democracy and freedom was endangered by the far right and their online supporters

Democracy prevailed in the end, you always have a winner and a loser, but that’s a far, far cry from silencing opposing viewpoints, erasing them, canceling them or limiting or even ostracizing them from work or society, that is NOT democracy. All voices and all sides should be heard even if we don’t all agree, all opinions should be valid.

@Lazarus Knows

Cancel culture is trying to remove, hide, censure books because the contents created decades even centuries ago offend someone.

Censorship of Mark Twain because of the language used at the time the books were written. Mounting a campaign to cancel the translation contracts of a Dutch (BTW non binary) and a Catalan translators because the book was by a black American and these 2 are white.

Demanding the name Croque Monsieur and Madame be removed because they don't represent non binary.

Charging a comedian with a crime for making (all be it bad taste) jokes is going to the far extreme if cancel culture.

Cancel culture is trying to remove, hide, censure books because the contents created decades even centuries ago offend someone.

Oh, it's a thing about books? Cool, so you must be opposed to southern, Republican run US states saying that books like 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Handmaid's Tale, and Catcher in the Rye is an example of cancel culture, no? If not, why not?

Demanding the name Croque Monsieur and Madame be removed because they don't represent non binary.

This didn't happen.

Charging a comedian with a crime for making (all be it bad taste) jokes is going to the far extreme if cancel culture.

Which comedian was charged with a crime? Substantiate your claim.

Which comedian was charged with a crime? Substantiate your claim.

Mike Ward look it up, bad taste? yes!a findable offense? Seriously!

I can imagine what would have happened if George Carlin was still around.

Oh, it's a thing about books? Cool, so you must be opposed to southern, Republican run US states saying that books like 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Handmaid's Tale, and Catcher in the Rye is an example of cancel culture, no? If not, why not?

Yes that would be cancel culture if they actually succeeded, the didn't. And there is the difference, Mark Twain has been removed, Tintin has been removed from school libraries including universities.

It's an attempt to "cancel" the will of the voters, to maintain a racist, neo-Nazi culture. If cancel culture exists (and I maintain that it doesn't), how is this not the apothesis?

Again you do not understand the difference between cancel culture and a crime, discrimination, and oppression.

But please keep trying to confuse the two.

The reason people try bringing up the criminal attempt to overthrow the election in the USA is because they cannot defend Logically the removal of Mark Twain's books, the removal of the Lincoln emancipation Memorial statue commissioned and paid for by former slaves, etc..

I see why statues erected years after the civil war this "honor" Confederate leaders should be removed especially since they were used and are used to propagate the false narrative that the war was not about slavery but about stare rights, which anyone with a minimum of education and knowledge of history knows it was Slavery and just that.

But when Lincoln, Churchill, Mark Twain, John A MacDonald, etc... Are now also being removed because they do not stand up to our present day norms. That is rewriting history in the same way the South has tried to rewrite by claiming it wasn't slavery they were fighting for.

When historical documentaries are being reenacted and because of political correctness women, and people that were not in the event must be included in the name of diversity, then these events are shown to students without explanation that there were no women, Asia, black soldiers in the British military in the 1700s, we are giving our children a false view of the facts. And yes this is happening in Canada, the UK were school books and videos have such things includes in the images an scenes.

Toss out historical facts for PC and no wonder so many today don't trust facts anymore.

Mike Ward look it up, bad taste? yes!a findable offense? Seriously!

I did look it up. His jokes victimised a disabled person. He wasn't "cancelled" (this took place in 2010, by the way, before the concerns about non-existant cancel culture), he was sued for actual harm. Not by the state, but by the victim.

I can imagine what would have happened if George Carlin was still around.

Imagine away what left-wing comedian would say.

Yes that would be cancel culture if they actually succeeded, the didn't. And there is the difference, Mark Twain has been removed, Tintin has been removed from school libraries including universities.

This displays an astonishing amount of ignorance. The books I named have been banned from schools in those states. Tintin and Mark Twain have not been removed from university libraries. You have been misinformed.

The reason people try bringing up the criminal attempt to overthrow the election in the USA is because they cannot defend Logically the removal of Mark Twain's books.

You're describing things that haven't happened. Please deal in reality.

But when Lincoln, Churchill, Mark Twain, John A MacDonald, etc... Are now also being removed because they do not stand up to our present day norms. That is rewriting history in the same way the South has tried to rewrite by claiming it wasn't slavery they were fighting for.

How does removing a statue "rewrite" history? Statues of Hitler were torn down in Germany after WWII. Do you think people don't know who he is?

When historical documentaries are being reenacted and because of political correctness women, and people that were not in the event must be included in the name of diversity, then these events are shown to students without explanation that there were no women, Asia, black soldiers in the British military in the 1700s, we are giving our children a false view of the facts. And yes this is happening in Canada, the UK were school books and videos have such things includes in the images an scenes.

None of this is true.

Toss out historical facts for PC and no wonder so many today don't trust facts anymore.

It's actually the addition of historical facts, rather than putting faith in national myths, that you are opposed to.

For example, let's take Churchill. When he said, "the Aryan stock is bound to triumph", do you think this is a good or bad belief? Why do you think so? Why should this quote not be taught?

None of this is true.

You're describing things that haven't happened. Please deal in reality.

Google exists, so do the reports articles in such well known sites like BBC, CBC, etc...

No I will not run around proving links.

You claim it didn't happen go look if you cannot find them you didn't even try.

Eradicating Histroy, Deleting Everything the Left disagrees with, Ignoring reality, Being Butthurt about anything and everything .

Yet you seem to be unable to provide solid examples.

When pushed, the angry reactionary right can usually come up with a couple of half-baked examples of some library somewhere where some overly sensitive librarian has got worried about the language used in a book.

Until the police come around and take scissors to my copies of Asterix, I'll not believe any of this nonsense.

Radical left bully tactic.

Eradicating Histroy, Deleting Everything the Left disagrees with

Um, Peppy (both LePew and The Frog) are both out there for anyone who wants to see them. As are the racist bugs bunny cartoons. And the potatoe heads. And louis CK. And everything else that the right claims has been "deleted".

Not the sharpest crayons in the box, are they. They're freaking out over something supposedly "deleted", that is accessible to anyone with an internet connection - ie: everybody.