What Everyone Gets Wrong About 'Cancel Culture'

I guess we're still talking about "Cancel Culture." There is a fear that free speech is under attack by online activists. And it's true that Twitter mobs can very quickly become sources of harassment and abuse. But are they really as big as threat as they're made out to be? Can rich and powerful people even be "canceled?"

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#T1J #the1janitor #CancelCulture

[goopaspect]

"perhaps jk rowling is uncancelable, unless she commits some sort of violent crime"
chris brown:

[moderndayjames]

You have one of the most thoughtful commentary channels! great content my friend

[littlecorrell]

"Vengeance is stupid ... in the end, no one's actually happier and no one learned anything"
Yes, yes, yes
Only loosely related, but I wholeheartedly agree with this when it comes to parenting. I didn't fully learn this until I had toddlers. But now that I understand just how much it doesn't work, my relationship with my kids is much better AND they are better behaved and better people.

[jeffner]

I think getting people fired from positions where they can discriminate against people is a good thing.
But doing the same to kids who are still in school and have time to learn is not ok.

[eleiraeel]

My main concern with cancel culture isn’t outcome, but mentality. Encouraging mob mentality is just a dangerous place to put everyone in as a principal. Great video

[RomeoDeJuliette]

Is funny how this free speech warriors don't defend Brie Larson.

[exquisitecorpse]

Hypothesis: In real life, we know and love many people with whom we disagree on numerous and meaningful issues, but because we know and love them, we tend to know what we can and can't talk about without triggering an argument. On the internet, however, we are faced by people we neither know nor love, and sometimes they express opinions with which we disagree in numerous and meaningful ways, and we sometimes pour out the venom we've been storing from all the times we've bit our tongues and let things go in our real lives.

Generalizations are 100% wrong, of course, so this doesn't explain the whole story. But I do think that it's not necessarily one's own anonymity that drives toxic internet discussions, sometimes it's the mere fact that you don't know the other person; you attack them as though they were the idea you hate rather than a complete human that carries that idea inside them.

[GeorgeLocke]

Bottom line is that a sudden swell of outrage can happen for good reasons or bad reasons, and the consequences can be proportionate or disproportionate. People who talk about cancel culture, at best, are saying that to often these days, it's happening for bad reasons or to excess. But framing it as "cancel culture" seems to imply that there are no good reasons or just consequences, which is why the term is worse than useless.

[steminist]

This is classic T1J, calling out the state of public discourse for just being a bunch of people talking past each other. Acknowledging nuance is why I subscribed so many years ago.

[CynicalMartian]

Does anyone else hear the world's smallest violin playing for the rich powerful people with platforms who are for the first time feeling the pressure of dissent?

[surgeland]

AOC put it best. "The term “cancel culture” comes from entitlement - as though the person complaining has the right to a large, captive audience, & one is a victim if people choose to tune them out. Odds are you’re not actually cancelled, you’re just being challenged, held accountable, or unliked."

[fuliajulia]

Many criticisms of "Cancel Culture" are total bull, but that doesn't change the fact that doxing/threats of violence/encouraging people to kill themselves is super common from mobs on both the left and right and is never morally justifiable behavior.

[keepmoving]

“I’m offended, that you are offended, by the offensive things I said! Why are you walking away! I want to say more offensive things!!!”
- every right wing demagogue

[KaelWrit]

People feel the rich and powerful are entitled to power, audiences, and wealth, no matter what... but the marginalized arent entitled to basic existence.
Also, hate speech silences free speech. When you cant say who you are without 10 people screaming slurs at you, that is silencing too.

[kingtypo]

This one time someone sent me a death threat because i’d reblogged some fanart of a cartoon with a problematic creator. At the time i was kinda out of the loop about the whole controversy, so i asked them what they knew about it and told them what i’d heard.
They acted surprised that i’d responded without any hostility & immediately became a lot more polite, although they were clearly very anxious about the situation.
Some of the points they made seemed to be based on misinformation, but others were pretty much accurate & i had to agree. I tried to tell them this, but before i could say anything they blurted out “sorry i don’t feel comfortable talking to a fan of this show”, and blocked me.

I think discourse is a really important tool for helping us understand each other & grow as people, but some people refuse to engage in any sort of discussion- not because they don’t wanna find out they’re wrong, but because they’re afraid that the opposition genuinely just wants to hurt them.
What’s really upsetting is that i can’t blame them for thinking like that....

[discord]

SO nice to hear a take that acknowedges the complexity of the issue. It seems like if you have any kind of mixed feelings on this topic, you get pigeonholed into either, "Cancel culture is the end of free speech, shut up if you're offended, snowflakes!" or "Cancel culture doesn't exist, calling out bad behaviour is universally good and has never done any harm ever."
There's plenty of reason to be nervous about mob tactics being used widely and uncritically. Personally, I think we should be advocating more conscientious, careful, and responsible use of call-outs that take into account the mechanics of the platforms we use. But so long as everybody is screaming at each other about whether or not so-called "cancel culture" exists, we're not talking about how we can use public discourse productively.

[houston-coley]

Thank you so much for making this video. I shouted “yes!” multiple times and instantly subscribed. We need more YouTube creators who can talk about these things in nuanced, complex and compassionate ways!

[fuzzycublb]

I recommend the book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” written by Jon Ronson. I never took the word cancel in Cancel Culture literally. I truly believe the choice of the word cancel in Cancel Culture came about (like Mob Mentality) due to nothing more than alliteration. The sound of the two words together works even if the definition of cancel doesn’t quite fit.

[arwenspicer]

I love the thoughtfulness of this video and am totally sharing it! I just see one point I feel wasn't covered: there's a difference between a sort of "hard power" and "soft power" in silencing, and this video focuses on hard power: canceling, social media nastiness, etc. can't make powerful people go away or stop people stating their views; it's not censorship. Agreed. But these actions carry a soft power too: a cumulative sense of always looking over our shoulder lest we say something "wrong" (according to someone) and get vitriol as a response, which is stressful, as the video notes. That does "silence, " in the sense that it constrains free exchange of ideas among ordinary folx in dozens of ways all the time. (Heck, I'm scared to write this comment.) Ex. One my students in a lit class went through the whole term never saying he disagreed with what he perceived as fundamental assumptions of the class (till one response at the end) because he assumed his voice would not be welcomed/tolerated. I wish he had felt free to speak. I think he misunderstood some of the assumptions I had in mind. I think we could have had very rich discussions if his voice had been included. He wasn't censored, but practically he was silenced. And I do think this is doing a cumulative damage to our culture. We're all becoming more afraid of each other. That hurts discourse; it increases stress and anger. I do agree with the video's assertion that a compassionate approach works better.

[purplehood]

TJ the “follow me” scares me every time lol! 😂 But I stay because I know the content is about to get good!