As Shane Goldmacher and Elaina Plott of the New York Times report, the 2021 CPAC Convention in Orlando revealed that “woke mob” and “cancel culture” are the new catchphrases of the conservative movement. This is in part an expression of fear that conservative and religious values are losing currency in American culture, seen in particular through the deplatforming of ideas that give offense. This can take the form of campus boycotts, suspended social media accounts or the refusal of platform monopolies like Amazon to carry controversial books. In the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s also an expression of frustration that what’s good for thee is not necessarily good for me.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, one of his party’s most adroit culture warriors, summarized the annoyance and alienation felt by attendees at the right-wing gathering because of the continuing pandemic.
“You can French kiss the guy next to you yelling ‘Abolish the police’ and no one will get infected,” he mocked. “But if you go to church and say ‘Amazing grace,’ everyone is going to die.”
It doesn’t matter that church choirs have repeatedly served as superspreader events, the idea is that there’s a double standard. When Trump held political rallies during the pandemic he was called irresponsible, but there was far less criticism of people gathering in the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis policemen. Moreover, religious conservatives opposed to LGBT rights see their books pulled off the shelves when equally unpopular ideas espoused by the left go unmolested. There’s enough of a point here that we don’t really need to contest the grievance or nitpick Cruz’s logic.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, requested on Monday that chairman Jerry Nadler hold a hearing on “cancel culture.”
https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1366498209498071040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1366498209498071040%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fhouse%2F541093-jim-jordan-calls-for-judiciary-hearing-on-cancel-cultureConservatives clearly think this is a winning issue for them, but I think it probably does a lot more to mobilize their base than it does to improve their chances of winning over undecided voters. There’s a segment of the population that feels stifled by “political correctness” and another overlapping one that is generally hostile to “elite” opinion. But unless the Republicans can articulate a broader message than resentment about being “cancelled,” I don’t see them getting much traction.
The best avenue for them is to focus on the power of Big Tech. This is a bipartisan concern that touches on not just censorship but privacy and anticompetitive practices. Of course, they don’t actually want this to be a bipartisan issue because they’re not interested in actually solving the problem, especially if they’d have to share the credit. They want the issue, and the issue doesn’t work unless it’s something uniquely vexing to Republicans.
For at least the last 70 years, it’s been about this right here. And it will be about this tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. They pine for those days like in 1954. They really do. Trump went there, and they want to be able to go there, too; loudly and proudly, every day.
Poor babies. they want to make Trump’s lies on the election and his attacks on Jan 6 seem perfectly reasonable. They are not, period. That and so much more is just bullshit.
I think politically, the strategy is not so great, because “cancel culture” for most people is rather distant and abstract. Yes, some NYT reporter (Donald McNeil) lost his job recently in a way that is arguably “cancelling” and that is not a straightforward expression of justice. He probably didn’t deserve to lose his job. I identify with Donald McNeil because I can kind of see that happening to me. I work with woke young people, I tread carefully, but who knows… maybe that could happen to me? I’ve got a plan B career though, so I don’t really mind. In any case, I’m under just as much pressure from right-wing budget cutting.
Some guy working a job in Wisconsin isn’t in much danger of getting cancelled.
I get what they’re saying. They’re hypocrites because they’re the worst cancellers but it makes sense just the same. I’m 57 and don’t know how to move with people wanting me to introduce myself with my preferred personal pronoun. I feel alien in my own culture. But I see it as a sign of progress too. Jeez, when I was a boy being called gay or “a fag” was the worst insult. If a black family moved into the neighborhood, they had overpaid for their home and never lasted a full year. Child abuse was ubiquitous. Parents traumatized their kids routinely without even a backward glance. Those times were truly ignorant. As bad as things still are, they’re much better now. I much prefer the new rules to the old. Even if I am an old guy who doesn’t always get it and who takes shit from time to time when I step on someone’s toes by mistake.
Contra Booman, I do think this issue has the power to mobilize independent voters, and we shouldn’t underestimate its potential power for the right. I know reasonable independent voters who voted for Trump because of it. This is one area where the left is far outside the mainstream, so it is a big danger for us.
I’m in academia and consider myself pretty leftist on most issues including race and gender, but I am very careful about what I say on these topics. If you say the wrong thing, you can easily lose your job–and there is no reasonable middle. Three years ago when my conservative acquaintances were harping on this issue I thought they were nuts, but things are changing and now I think they have a point. And this is the ONLY issue where I feel that way.
Cancel culture isn’t some “thing” that can be legislated away or, for lack of a better word, cancelled.
It’s the unholy mix of “social media” and TheFreeMarket™.
After the Dixie Chicks and Shirley Sherrod, dirty fucking liberals learned that if you hold up a camera to a bigot, they’ll eventually say bigoted things. Or, more common now, dumb fucking bigots will say dumb fucking bigoted shit on Twitter on their own, because they’re dumb fucking bigots.
Cancel Culture isn’t a thing. It’s a part of human culture.
Adapt by thinking before you speak, or lose your (usually high-level high-paid) job. Some pleb making less than $50,000 doesn’t have to worry about getting canceled, as they’re essentially nobody.