Tags
“I hope cancel culture keeps expanding and more and more people get canceled, because then eventually everyone will get canceled and it will mean nothing and we’ll just have a reset. Cancel culture is inevitably a self-canceling proposition.” ~ Meghan Daum
Daum’s view seems rather fatuous to me. It misunderstands how mobs use power, and why they use it.
For anyone who participates in Twitter mobs – groups of people who aim to ostracize someone based on various kinds of accusations – one ought to ask how-would-you-feel questions. How would you feel if your child in school became the victim of such accusations, propagated among your child’s peer group? Would you defend your child? Would you talk to the school’s principle? Would you refer to the peer group’s behavior as bullying?
Why do these standards of judgment not apply to groups who level accusations against other adults online? Why do we accept and even promote ostracism of adults, but condemn ostracism of children? Does the nature of ostracism vary, depending on the victim’s age?
Related article
The Jeffersonian 