Member-only story
Malice Through The Looking Glass
Why cancel culture is inherently fascist
First a disclaimer: aside from FB, which I use to keep in touch with friends around the globe, and Medium, which I use to gain access to perspectives I otherwise might not encounter, I don’t use social media. As such, I’m a latecomer to the term cancel culture.
So I went off and did some research about this exciting new phenomenon and what I found left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. Even the term is enough to flag loudly and clearly that something is very wrong indeed.
As most people will be aware, “cancelling” is the term given to a process by means of which someone claims that a well-known person has done (or, more rarely, not done) something which means they should be publicly excoriated and thereafter sent into banishment. As we live in a black-and-white on/off yes/no world of absolutes, few pause to consider (a) whether the allegations are credible, and (b) whether or not the claimed action or inaction truly is of a degree such that online lynching is an appropriate response.
In many cases it turns out that the claimed perpetrator was indeed guilty of something; in many other cases it turns out that the claimed perpetrator was not in fact guilty of something. But in all cases the thrill of public excoriation is too great to be resisted.
