It’s good that in this era of radical echo chambers, incels and mass shootings, we have a “cancel culture” that make people more isolated and bitter. It will work great.
907
@Joseph Sorry, but if you're unrepentantly saying or doing hateful things and we shun you for it, that's on you. It makes you isolated and bitter? Well, you should have minded your manners. And I'd wager that if you make amends and start acting right, you'll be invited back.
If you're insisting that hateful people should continued to be welcome despite their hate, well, you're wrong.
24
@Joseph if this is the future, maybe a 55 ft. sea level increase, followed by rise of the dolphin civilization, is not a bad thing.
22
@Todd "hate" is a strong word. Some people are not actually hateful, just angry and miserable, and take it out on others. Are there "hateful" people? Sure, and it's totally fine to not interact with them.
In any case, both the behavior noted in the article, and also the 'canceling' is quite immature - just like the kids doing it. It borders on mob mentality.
Eventually, we learn to respect another person just because it's a person, regardless of his or her opinions, and also realize that opinions that are obviously right for us may not be so for other people.
10
Oh no...the Boomers found a “scary” “new” Gen-Z trend to get worked up about.
Suddenly everyone is terrified of “cancel culture” when it’s just a new term for the timeless practice of not wanting to hang out with people who make you miserable. So many of these articles about the perils of cancellation come from people who seem to believe every eye in the world is trained on them, just *waiting* for something to jump on. Who has the time for that? If nothing else, young people are conscious that each of us has only so many heartbeats between birth and death. There’s no requirement that you spend them with people who can’t take even a second to consider that they may have even accidentally hurt someone.
But, sure, blame “cancel culture” for why your grandkids don’t call you anymore. Not your MAGA hat.
537
@Liz Joyce
This seems a straw man argument. A critique of cancel culture does not say you have to hang out with or like or even talk to people you find offensive. Though the vagueness in this article about exactly what the offence was that resulted in the “cancel” does suggest how easily the self righteous can find themselves offended. There are after all laws against behavior that is genuinely harmful. And it does seem that “ cancelling” on the high school level is often cruel to the person being humiliated, not that different from garden variety bullying. Do you take any responsibility for their hurt? And the electronic form—which can result in a pile on of thousands of nasty tweets against the offender is , at its worst, reminiscent of the scary public hatings in 1984.
68
@Liz Joyce Different now. Social media can everyone against you. It becomes a polarizing thing, driving the offenders away. The only ones they can turn to are those who think like them.
Remind you of our current political situation?
24
@Liz Joyce your stance seems a bit insensitive. It’s important to recognize that we’re talking about kids who are supposed to make mistakes and learn from them. But social media has magnified and over-dramatized everything kids say to the point that the punishment often over-shoots the crime.
If you have kids, you’ll see the fear they live in of being misperceived on social media for not saying just the right thing every time. Even disengaging is seen as a sin of omission.
Frankly, the whole social media thing, between identity theft, bullying and now this cancel culture, has been a complete failure. Where’s the benefit of it again? We should just get rid of the whole thing.
53
"Cancel culture" is a fiction made up by bigots, incels, and other right-wingers who feel attacked when their stupidities are called out by the left. Because they don't have the courage or the brains to enter into a vigorous and intellectually sound debate with the liberals who criticize them, they remain silent in public and then retreat into the man caves of the internet to lick their wounds. It's not the left that is afraid to enter into a debate, nor is it the left that silences dissenting views. Rather, it's the right-wing snowflakes who whine about "cancel culture" because their feelings are hurt when someone challenges their racism, sexism, and homophobia.
565
@MP
It is a "left wing" phenomena however. "Right wing" speakers are yelled out, screamed down, and often barred from college campuses. The "left" is highly intolerant, and often seeks to point out "right vs left" scenarios.
A view from a centrist.
247
The left is just as guilty. They even cancel each other. Those on the far left won't listen to more centrist view points.
Our entire culture is losing the ability to listen to others. You don't always have to agree, but canceling everyone you disagree with will ultimately be very limited and lonely.
293
Nice try, but canceling is real, it is nasty, it shuts down conversation and creates fear. As shown by the example of the girl cancelled because people didn't like her personality a tool of the group to use against the weaker or less accommodating member of the group.
250
So sad: sure, lots of people nowadays that are obnoxious. Some cruel. Many are nice and engaging. "Canceling" someone is just a form a tribalism that seems to be growing in our Society.
27
misgender? Please explain.
12
This sounds very much like the “shunning” practiced by a number of faiths.
As a middle aged guy, raised well before the era of social media, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not.
Words have consequences. Racism, Islamophobia, sexism and homophobia have no place in the 21st century.
However, forgiveness is also a faith tradition.
41
Whenever a teenager has cancer it is astoundingly sad. I'm sorry that a culture has formed around this awful disease, but perhaps by uniting these cancer teens can find an easier way through their cancer struggle. Don't judge.
8
Mob mentality potentiated by the Internet.
25
“ She said that this meant she would avoid speaking or engaging with him in the future, that she didn’t care to hear what he had to say, because he wouldn’t change his mind and was beyond reason.”
Come across someone with whom you disagree? Avoid them, don’t listen to what they have to say. Of course, this avoids the chance for the person who is offended to hone their skills at argumentation and also totally closes down the possibility of reaching agreement and/or changing the other party’s mind. This is hard work and requires accepting the possibility that one’s position needs to be modified.
24
An Army buddy of mine declined a Facebook invite from me. He explained “I’m out of Facebook. When I signed up, I got 100 suggestions for ‘Friends’ that were in High school with me. I didn’t like them then, and don’t want to be their friend now.”
The cancel culture shows a real lack of maturity, and indicates who your friends really are. It is all exacerbated by the poison that is Social Media.
If I were to go through High School again, I would focus on Academics and Jiu-Jitsu and do my best to ignore all the other noise. It’s difficult, but almost nothing that occurs in High School matters in the long run.
16
I’m a pre-millennial. To me, “cancel culture” (at least as described in this article, just sounds like plain-old ostracism. To be fair, I can imagine, and have seen concrete examples of, how any form of verbal bullying can be accentuated by social media.
But, we need to be careful not to reinvent the wheel when we describe the social interactions of teens and young adults. They may be the first gen to grow up with social media, but most of their interactions, if not all, are part of the the standard repertoire for humans in groups.
This stuff has been happening since the dawn of human existence. It exists in other species as well, thus the phenomenon likely predates human evolution.
In summary, it’s just not new. There are so many novels, plays and screenplays written about this that I can’t even begin to make a list.
40
A nation of people hooked on "free" electronic "social" media, that tricks and spies on them (and is not "social" in a positive sense), cannot raise its gadget-addicted children to learn basic norms of politeness, decent behavior and healthy social interaction, and taking its lead from a social media "president," elected with help from social-media-infiltrated foreign propaganda, is -step, by groomed step- becoming a dysfunctional nation of Trumps.
14
"cancel culture" is not a fiction, and i say that as someone from the left, cancelled by people even further left of me.
my offense? being against the redesign of the pride flag with the brown and black stripes added on top. backstory - i am gay. i am also a designer. i am white (cancel culture automatically deems my opinion unworthy for this). being from NY metro area, my friend group from middle school on was very multi-racial and multi-cultural. by college at a CUNY school, i was one of the *very few* white students. i liked it. i enjoy being around people from different backgrounds. i have never had any problems with any one of any race, but i see massive problems of systematic racism in society where non whites have been mistreated - from slavery and land theft, to red lining, to broken windows policing, racial profiling etc - and i speak out against them.
but yet. being against adding skin tones to a bright RAINBOW flag that has zero racial connotation and is instead a flag of non-hetero solidarity and pride for everyone - i find forcing race onto the non-racial flag is visually ugly and conceptually senseless (not to mention, what about non-whites who are not black or brown skinned and experience discrimination?!). and due to that "RACIST!!!!" belief, i was cancelled by friends of friends of varying friend groups. adults. in their mid-late 20s. hysterical, enraged, emotional people like that just can't be taken seriously - i dont mind being "cancelled".
41
Sounds like high school all right ... new phrase for an old behavior.
33
Let's call cancel culture what it is: ostracism and shunning.
41
Another really bad idea brought to your from the technology sector, so if you don't agree just delete them, stop talking, or computing/social media-ing. WOW, so we wonder how we have school shooters and other issues. Our kids need help and consoling. The politics of the current situation are truly tearing this country apart.
Try just one thing please, just once today be friendly and nice to one person just to be nice. I know what your thinking, clueless post... but try it. Traffic is better, the grocery line is better, life is better. Just stop the anger for a minute... maybe you might actually learn something new. This is all going very wrong for this country.
19
"Canceling" is as old as time itself. It used to be called ostracizing. Also, black balling and black listing. There will always be a way to, and a label for, ousting people from your life. Sometimes it is necessary to protect your self image, self esteem and mental health.
16
O dear Lord! I cannot escape this comment section! It is almost noon and I’ve yet to even look at the headlines!
7
Wouldn’t it be great if the main stream media cancelled Donald Trump?
16
Cancel culture is in some ways reminiscent of the harsh, age-old practice of shunning. As an individual, avoiding someone whose behavior you can't tolerate and who refuses to change is understandable. But shunning as a group drives the shunned to be further alienated, which can make people bitter and desperate, and that's a dangerous place to be. It's a lot better to call someone in if possible or if not, then to be cool, don't seek to interact, no encouragement, but nod an acknowledgement that the person exists, and go about your business.
10
Speak of cancelled. When moved to a new town for hs, I never had any social contact. I didn’t even know anyone well enough to call to find out about homework if missed a class. No one ever spoke to me, ever, and I don’t even know why. Daughter said a friend from Korea described how the custom in her school was to declare someone a pariah (there was a Korean word for it I don’t remember). No one could speak to her—if someone did, they became the pariah and no one would speak to them. And from what she told me, picking the pariah was arbitrary, like ‘The Lottery’. People are jerks--especially in adolescence.
9
You lost me at "ask a teenager."
The only time I'll ask a teenager anything is when I need to know how to be a useless, non-productive member of society.
12
As an older guy myself, I find young people refreshing. They are ridding themselves of the intolerance, racism, homophobia and misogyny that plagued my generation.
I also find them intensely curious, which I appreciate in anyone at any age. I also find them very tolerant except when it comes to intolerance.
165
When Trump supporters cheer a racist, homophobic, misogynist who flouts the rule of law and mocks the disabled and then turn around and wonder where their friends have gone, I think it's accurate to say that they've "canceled" themselves. And they deserve it.
15
Culture, cult or ochlocracy?
3
This sounds terrible - totally cut someone off from contact because they have a different opinion.
7
"cancel culture" is not a fiction, and i say that as someone from the left, cancelled by people even further left of me.
my offense? being against the redesign of the pride flag with the brown and black stripes added on top. backstory - i am gay. i am also a designer. i am white (cancel culture automatically deems my opinion unworthy for this). being from NY metro area, my friend group from middle school on was very multi-racial and multi-cultural. by college at a CUNY school, i was one of the *very few* white students. i liked it. i enjoy being around people from different backgrounds. i have never had any problems with any one of any race, but i see massive problems of systematic racism in society where non whites have been mistreated - from slavery and land theft, to red lining, to broken windows policing, racial profiling etc - and i speak out against them.
but yet. being against adding skin tones to a bright RAINBOW flag that has zero racial connotation and is instead a flag of non-hetero solidarity and pride for everyone - i find forcing race onto the non-racial flag is visually ugly and conceptually senseless (not to mention, what about non-whites who are not black or brown skinned and experience discrimination?!). and due to that "RACIST!!!!" belief, i was cancelled by friends of friends of varying friend groups. adults. in their mid-late 20s. hysterical, enraged, emotional people like that just can't be taken seriously - i dont mind being "cancelled".
20
We have two sons; one turns 16 soon, the other is 10. They are not allowed on any social media platforms. That sd they do read the news everyday and gain valuable insights into the goings-on in the world. They ask us questions and form their own opinions about events. I think if you asked them, they would tell that there are more important things to do than waste time slinging insults, gossip, and rumors around on these platforms.
10
In the 1970's cancel culture was you didn't get to sit at the popular table at lunch.
13
Is this the same crowd that wears "OK Boomer" shirts?
9
Let's see....t-shirts maybe
Canceled and Proud
Thank God I'm Canceled
Call Me Cancel
Canceled = Freedom
Kancel Klub
All Cancels Welcome
Cancel Me Please
Cancel This!
Fit-in? Cancel That
If you haven't been canceled, you're doing it wrong
Canceled? Whatever...Even...Meh
15
Isn't this just ostracization? A decade ago when I was in high school we were being told how damaging and wrong this was. I suppose its worst now with so much more social media but the idea that this is anything new is absurd. This is just another boring article about how terrible kids these days. Relax, The kids are alright.
6
One of my colleagues is a Jehovah’s Witness. Not being familiar with their religion, I did a little research.
You want to talk about cancel culture? If you’re “disfellowed” for leaving the organization, no witness is allowed to speak or associate with you. Even family members will be ostracized. You will be reported to elders if you’re observed speaking to a disfellowed person. How cruel. By the way, my colleague is the sweetest, best employee I’ve ever known. I hope for the best for a wonderful person.
7
Snubbing, shunning, there's nothing new about that.
7
I feel like this article could have been a little more tightly written. Most of the examples given put a new name to the age-old practice of sorting people into in and out groups. Some cultures call it shunning, in Regency times it was “the cut direct”, and think of the last scene in Dangerous Liaisons, with the entire opera house hissing at Glenn Close. Classic “cancel culture”, with its whiff of bullying and aftertaste of meanness.
Then there’s the cancel culture Obama called out, when people are canceling other for misidentified pronouns or unintentional offenses. Here’s the deal: most people don’t want to be jerks. Very few people intend harm to others when using grammar they’ve been taught since childhood (she/he), or when interacting with people from a different race or culture. If the offended could grant a moment of grace to teach someone how not to be ignorant in the future, imagine how that might spark real change and connection? And if the offender could grant back that grace by listening without being defensive, WOW. I’m a privileged middle aged white lady who would LOVE to turn a faux pas into a learning moment (the opposite of a teaching moment). Might be more difficult for kids, who are by nature defensive of their fledgling identities.
I’m obviously not talking about people who intentionally and blithely use racial/misogynistic/gendered slurs without regard to the damage they cause....or with the intention of causing damage. That’s a whole different animal
9
Ganging up to "cancel someone" is bullying of the worst kind. Everyone has the right to not associate with people you disagree with but keep it to yourself...don't bring in all your friends. It's hard for people to recover from this type of gang activity. And people wonder why suicide rates among our young people are up 56% since 2008. Just maybe, the "cancel culture" of young people is being driven by our politicians and leaders doing this every day. If it's okay for parents and our leaders to cancel and publicly shame people...maybe our young people are just following their example.
12
I’m offended by everything. If you don’t agree with me you’re wrong. I will cancel anything and everyone until I’m only surrounded by views just like mine.
17
The ultimate punishment for a primate like Homo sapiens is “cancelation.” Not being spoken to, being turned out of the group, and even being cold shouldered are unbearable punishments for a social animal.
Religions have long practiced it under words like excommunication (Catholicism), shunning (Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormonism) or disconnection (the cult of Scientology). Exile was the term for political punishment.
By whatever term, it is a cruel and hateful practice. I would encourage teenagers to examine their consciences and see if patient dialogue is not a better and more charitable option (see Quakerism). You just might change someone’s mind, including your own.
8
"Cancelling" sounds a lot like bullying combined with rationalizing being a bully.
16
Really it’s gang bullying.
A socio-emotional gang pile-on.
8
We had the same thing in the 80s, we called it 'tuning " somebody out. In many ways we were ahead of our time, because in our current culture where most of the population walks around with headphones, airpods, or earphones glued to their heads, we are headed for a time when nobody will be listening to anybody anyway.
3
I consider being ignored a blessing. Many people are like Trump and attempt manipulation and most others are just uninteresting. You tend to only meet a few people you can connect with in life. I am fine with that. But then, I am older. If your young, you'll need to at least meet some new people.
Ignoring people you don't like is actually a good thing to do. Focus on building yourself and moving forward. Ignore the jerks. They are omnipresent.
2
This is simply cultural sorting, which has been happening in the US for quite some time.
Much like any other culture there are two primary cultures that are being born in the United States that are, over time, differentiating themselves by beliefs, practices, and even geography.
Cancel culture is basically a modern version of shunning which has been happening since forever.
3
Bullying has always been with us. (I myself was a victim of it as a child in the 1960s.) But cancellation goes beyond that. It is tragic that children, adolescents and young adults use cancellation to handle differences, establish dominance, enforce rules of political correctness, and that they feel justified in doing so. Social media didn't create this problem, but it has amplified it and made it socially acceptable and even expected. The willingness -- and skill -- to think critically, and for oneself, to assess situations on the merits, and to treat differences of opinion with compassion and respect now seems terribly old fashioned.
Tribalism is hard-wired in us. It might have been necessary for survival many millennia ago, but now this vestigial trait is a pitchfork to enforce self-righteous indignation and feelings of superiority. It's not a problem of the left or the right. It's a problem of the human race, and its implications are as serious as nuclear fallout. We're poisoning ourselves.
7
Make no mistake, Round the Bend, we have been socially riven thusly, by KGB psy-ops-
and it is a sweet culmination for Putin. No one is a magical totem and blacks and lgbt people are not going to save you from critical thinking and brotherhood with your fellow Americans.
2
@American
True what you say about Putin. I also believe that the ideological sinkhole of intersectionality in the academy has been corralling minds for a few decades now, and it's spread through the entire culture. Maybe that's your point about "blacks and lgbt people," in which case I agree with you there too. By the way, I'm an L and I'm fending off ideological blather every other minute these days.
1
Maybe you need to get the “L” out?
Honestly, this power grab on social media has nothing to do with the needs of minorities, who need what the majority already has, not a new red guard to single out non-believers.
This is all so, male.
Making room in society, first for women to work (perverted into women Must work and children are now pets for the rich), and for sexual minorities to freely exist, has unnerved the male stakeholders of society, such that only the most aggressive, the most angry, the ones with the most “followers”, willing to say the very worst things and propose the most extreme consequences- those elements are wildly, disproportionately empowered, and all those too passive or polite or cowed (hence feminized), must shrink back, enthusiastically agree or else face consequences.
All Very Male.
1
First of all, "cancelling" people didn't come from youtube. It's aave that was twisted to mean cyberbullying. Also, while I'm not saying that other people may have different experiences from me, I've never heard people actually say the word "cancelled" out loud. Yes, people on the internet can get weird about little things, but most of the time when we call someone out, its because of cannibalism fetishes or lateral oppression.
1
"Ben, 17, said that ... canceling someone 'takes away the option for them to learn from their mistakes and kind of alienates them.'"
If you ask someone to stop a certain behavior after explaining why it's problematic and they ignore you, ostracizing them seems like a pretty good teaching method.
6
What are the necessary qualifications, for this “teaching” position?
7
@Lifelong Reader
It seems like a good way to make people resentful, isolated, and detached from the groundings of society.
11
This is the first time I am hearing of this teenage "Cancel Culture".
I'm not so sure it is unique to teenagers.
It sounds a lot like being an adult in 2019.
As an adult, if you offer dissenting viewpoints/opinions, you are quickly dismissed as a "Russian Asset" or a "Conspiracy Theorist"........in effect "cancelling" that individual in an attempt to silence them for not preaching the "official allowed narrative".
8
Everyone, cancel trump, if this does any good......
5
I do think some opinions and beliefs are egregious and out to be corrected -- I like the idea of 'calling in,' which I learned about from this article. However, I do want to believe that people can learn and change, and to give people the space to do that. Anger, aggression, and directly ignoring others is not going to motivate positive growth or learning better behaviors. I also found the example of 'cancelling' in the case of the high school student appalling. That's not cancelling, that is excluding and bullying. Call it what it is.
7
Is it possible to not place blame on someone for their personality? It's like disrespecting them because of their shoe size. Ridiculous. Someone's personality may not be appealing to others, but to judge them for that only demonstrates ignorance and intolerance, and most importantly, lack of compassion.
Of course, this is a trait of human nature that has been part of our species for a very long time.
Is it possible for humans to EVOLVE and learn new traits that allow all to accept one another?
Maybe, maybe not (to our peril).
5
"Cancelling" is simply a new form of ostracization, which was practiced in my high school decades ago before social media. Problem is (still) that it can be a form of bullying, when a popular individual (or group) drives the unfair targeting of someone they simply don't like. Imagine who Donald Trump would "cancel" through his network of supporters if he chose to do that!
4
again, more cruel behavior encouraged and abetted by social media where young people are encouraged to act like a herd of sheep, senselessly following the nonsense of social media like a playbook. Very dangerous, and where are the so-called responsible adults, the teachers, educators, school psychologist, they are often encouraging this kind of unacceptable behavior, cutting off parents from knowledge of their children's behavior. And we wonder why the teenage suicide rate is rising? what happened to empathy, compassion, Christian ethics? another case of world gone wrong, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg .
4
The teachers and counselors are leading this nonsense.
2
When did teens and 20 somethings become so fragile?
8
People have always chosen friends based on similarities and like mindedness. This is not new, just a new label.
1
Yet another crucially important piece published by our nation's newspaper of record.
1
Not the same as cancelling a magazine subscription...In society...cancelling does not make the people go away...you are only ignoring...the Problem !!
1
Remember a few years ago when "on fleek" was a thing people said? Then the news wrote about it and old white people started saying it; now nobody says "on fleek" any more.
Predicting that the NYT just cancelled "cancelled".
2
How very Lord of the Flies.
9
Reminds me of the "blacklisting' by the Right that goes on in the government: "divide, discredit, distrupt, destroy" since at least the McCarthy era.
https://www.byline.com/column/69/article/1696
3
This happens when the digital concept of blocking meets north-american puritanism. 21st century lynching.
5
Great article. I do feel for the younger people. I’m an older millennial and we would “cancel” people from our lives who were toxic. However, some of the cancellations were just wrong here. Kids in general do not have the experience of time to humble themselves. I do remember back in high school that they were the “holier than thou” students who were just the worst type of people. Some of these people seem like that.
Fun fact: Just because you are sticking up for the right things (transgender rights, LGBT rights, not saying the N word, etc.) doesn’t mean you can’t be a bully also. And, you may do more damage to your cause than help the people you’re “sticking up for.” Don’t just call out, call them in. Have a productive conversation, ask questions, don’t get overly emotional about their responses. If you want to change the world, look at the person in the mirror and be the change you want the world to be.
7
Interesting to hear other young people's perspectives on cancel culture. I always viewed it as a way to cancel a brand, whether that be a product or a person, but never to ghost someone I actually knew (ghosting = blocking on social media, cutting off contact, no explanation). And for me, it isn't permanent. If I hear about a cancelled brand righting their wrong, I'll give them a chance again.
On the topic of "cancel culture" - it's nothing new. It's just a name someone came up with to explain something they didn't like - like 'snowflake.' Doesn't mean anything much. People do stupid things all the time, and smarter people ignore them. It's nothing unusual.
Though one thing I noticed with the people here who talk about it being "fiction" or a something made up by older people is that "cancel culture" takes it to an extreme. People who are "canceled" can, as it always has been - ignored for being stupid, or have their existence erased to the people who cancelled them. The total erasure of someones existence from another life removes any chance of getting to the root of the issue, discussion/debate, and (preferably) reconciliation between the canceller/cancelled.
2
I find it hilarious Republicans make fun of cancel culture yet praise the Amish for their conservative 'family' values. You know the Amish, they are the experts at cancel culture with their traditional shunning that has been going on for more than 100 years.
4
@Jonahh
Right, barely a day goes by where I don't hear a Republican praising the Amish (?!)
4
Wow. I'm pushing 70 and I just read about this 'cancel craze,' wedding picture "ruin porn," the desired storming of Area 51, and some shared idiocy about an imagined being, "Seth."
I can't relate to any of it. Did I really wake up this morning, or am I still asleep with a bad dream?
We are collectively confronting - or should be - serious, immediate, existential threats to both our democracy and ecological stability - and people are responding with craziness, escapism and shared mental flights of un-reason.
We're living in post-Enlightenment times with prognosis for a healthy country and world looking very poor - regardless of election results next year.
All this nonsense will be swept away by the coming realities of collapsing food chains and demolished supply chains, and survivors will be left to regret that more serious attention was not paid to reality and things that really matter.
If I'm lucky, I won't live to see the worst of it, but I'm deeply worried for my children and grandchildren.
17
You should write for the NYT’s.
@Ambient Kestrel, Interesting that the Sethians used to exist 400 to 200 hundred years ago. They worshiped Seth, who was Cain and Abel's brother. The Sethians used to write his name on hidden places on a ship, for example.
But if she liked the song he and his friends could have continued to play it without her having a problem with it right? So the problem here is some little girl, who you point out is black to make this racial, doesn't like a song so everyone who does is not allowed to listen to it.
7
What is described in this article is similar to shunning, as practiced by the Amish.
Jasper
3
What on earth is this about.? Can't we just let teenagers figure out life without casting their every move as earthshaking?. Give them some space please.
4
Saints preserve us!
I don't know what's more awful -- "cancel culture," the boy who sang a racist lyric, the boy who was canceled for playing an R. Kelly song (whoever or whatever R. Kelly is), or the "call to battle heteronormativity and cisgender language," which sounds like Mao Zedong on drugs.
No wonder this generation has such high suicide rates -- we've gone completely insane.
11
I agree with most commenters here but in the case where that poor child was a Trump Supporter.....unfortunately he’s going to need professional help.
1
I’ve now literally and figuratively cancelled Facebook.
3
It's called "shunning" in certain religions. In others, you are declared "dead to me". Maybe it's a sign of unrecognized insecurity.
5
this is just another facet of the "perpetual victimhood" ideology that is growing in this country.
These people wanting to "cancel" others for what they say, are apoplectic when they think their own "right" to "say anything" is infringed, but demand they can harm/cancel those they don't agree with.
Obama made a point on this recently. He told the "kids" at his speech that texting and tweeting stuff, then sitting back feeling smug because they "called someone out" on social media was not activism; it is childish demands for purity and perfection as they demand it. A goal no one will ever reach.
Conservatives Liberals Progressives and Trumpians are all part of the problem and all behave the same way.
Sadly it is humanity that loses in this quest for Perpetual Victimhood
6
Isn't this just shunning?
4
Ironic that in the conversation about misgendering, the masculine term that is used for all students is “upperclassmen”.
1
With respect, I think you either misunderstood or were misled by these kids. Saying "I canceled him" is not a thing. Or at least not a widespread thing. Sometimes when we are mocking the stereotypes boomers believe about us we might sarcastically say "Ohh, I'm so offended! I'm canceling you! Us snowflakes can't handle it". Maybe that's what happened? They were joking? Idk. Regardless, this smacks of a typical fearmongering "kids these days" attitude that so many older adults seem to have.
2
So, basically teens are doing what they always did, just on social media.
'Cancel' is just the modern phrase for what pretty much teens did before youtube, before *shock* computers at all. Teens pretty much are all about popularity, and belonging, and they trash each other because, frankly, they learn it from their parents and adults. You have a president who's pretty much an idiot when it comes to using computers, but he certainly learned his trash mouth talk before he ever put two thumbs to Twitter.
If you make a living off of social media, yeah, getting 'cancelled' means money. But if you are a teen, part of the lesson in getting over it is learning both that cancelling doesn't mean as much as people think it does, and probably cancelling someone else, yeah, doesn't allow them to correct, which means you're doing a lot of nothing by cancelling someone.
It's honestly for each person to figure out. I think being a good mentor would help a lot more than trying to make 'cancel' culture sound like something people haven't been through. Because they have.
3
It is as if no one reads Hawthorne anymore.
12
No one reads anymore. And the little red guards, are enthusiastic about banning words. This will not end well.
7
This makes me very sad. Social ostracism, especially as a teen is cruel.
It also makes me worried because this issue motivates Trump supporters like little else. I sincerely hope that whoever is the Democratic nominee follows Obama's lead on PC woke culture.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1189349299118727168?fbclid=IwAR1xFC1kBGYM9qGyce7M6pJJbvTMC4UR_m0XyF8c6-oWbUg2IIgDbVQIxBg
3
If someone uses the N word, I don't hang out with them. If someone habitually uses racist or sexual epithets, I don't hang out with them. If someone says Trump is right about things and there's too many Mexicans, I don't hang out with them.
If someone says one of the above things, then stops, corrects themselves, then says something like, "Hey, sorry, I guess that wasn't too cool." I not only continue to hang out with them, I applaud their courage.
3
Probably they spend their time hanging around outside libraries, screaming “transwomen are women”, at old ladies trying to discuss what gender identity will do to the rights of women.
2
Wait til these guys enter the workforce ...
6
I started reading this article, but why is the next generation so mysterious that we’re reading articles about middle school culture?
PC Culture nonsense. All “canceling” does is reverse “cancel” the other party. Let’s all live and deal with the challenges of grieving up without PC rules..
3
Canceling people one by one for reasons of insensitivity or ignorance or lack of "wokefulness" sounds like a great way to end up in the political minority.
5
Used to be called "shunning".
2
This canceling business sounds like old-fashioned religious "shunning," as practiced among the Amish, in the Church of Scientology, to name just a couple. In our secular world (until recently), if you didn't like someone, you--singular--would avoid them. It's up to the offended person to stay clear of obnoxiousness. In the teen culture depicted in this article, though, it's group sport. Nobody is allowed an opinion that varies from the dominant group. Right wing: Fascism. Left wing: Authoritarianism (Stalinism, or some other Marxish thing).
Btw, this is happening a lot within families, too. People (usually a parent, generally a mother) are shut out of the next generation's family because--well, that's part of it. The offense is never explained. If you don't know what you said or did, you're beyond redemption. No explanation needed, Grammy. Apologize, now! (For what? If you ask, that's your last word.) Expect to be blocked. Your calls will not be returned. You will be treated as if you're dead--distantly, quietly. The relationship is over.
This "canceling" stuff is not limited to teens. The may well be learning it from their elders.
3
Like the Buddha says, free yourself from fear and attachment.
6
OK Boomer!
2
Cancelled?
Sounds more like living in an intellectually and emotionally lazy bubble than being woke.
2
Such clever teen-millennials. They revive the mentality of the Cultural Revolution at school with preening political correctness and practice ostracism, and in their silly social-media world call it cancelling. What a future! Bring on the asteroid!
5
A nation of people who cannot even exchange ideas without the need for retaliation - has nearly 7,000 nuclear warheads. That's comforting.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
7
One big difference between the left and the right re cancel culture is that moderates and conservatives do not cancel leftists, because those on center-right believe that those on the left are wrong, but only wrong. We've learned to live with their being wrong, but there is always the possibility of change. Some do. See under: Ronald Reagan. And some conservatives drift leftward. See under: Justice John Paul Stevens.
Those on the left, though, believe that those to their right are irreparably evil, sexist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, intolerant, bigoted, homophobic, misogynistic, and racist. And once you're any one of those things, you're cancellation toast.
2
Does anyone remember “Slam Books” from high school? They were spiral notebooks with a classmate’s name written on each page. These notebooks were passed around so that you could ‘anonymously’ write what you thought of that person on her/his page. They were the source of many hurt feelings and ‘cancellations’. Facebook, Twitter, etc. are just electronic “Slam Books”.
3
Sounds like pretty normal life, with the word “cancel” in it.
2
A nation of people who cannot even exchange ideas without the need for retaliation - has nearly 7,000 nuclear warheads. That's comforting.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
2
So basically, it's the new "dead to me."
3
In the Soviet Union, one wasn't permitted to speak or think in certain ways or, voila, you'd be sent to the Gulag or worse.
If you don't like that notion, then think about this: canceling someone from society (and we've now seen it for stupid things people say/think) is like the old days of banishment.
The West has gotten weird, people, when we can't just think out loud, sometimes think stupidly or wrongly, and not have a conversation and still be considered a human, a citizen, with a right to be who we are, even if others don't like us.
3
Read Rising Out of Hatred, by Eli Saslow. It's about Derek Black, who became convinced that his white supremacist ideology was wrong... but only after months and years of interaction with people who were persistent in reaching out to him--despite his odious beliefs. What if they had cancelled him instead?
3
Gradually cancelling people who aren't as "pure" as you for infractions of insensitivity or ignorance sounds like a great way to end up in a political minority.
4
Nothing new here but the tech. I Have a few boorish friends that I canceled decades ago. Life is too short to be around people who are wicked, cruel, manipulative, or racist.
1
Every kid who has been bullied knows what being “cancelled” really means.
8
Stop treating this like this is a new phenomenon. It’s called IGNORE! The word ignore has been in the language for some time why do we need to suddenly call it cancel?? My god! It’s like when I heard the term “ghost...” Dude... that’s called ignore! Cool story about how young people use different words! Terribly pretentious if you were trying to actually convey a message, unfortunately. ‘Oooh young people have a new social mechanism for weeding out dumb thoughts. They bully somebody. But it’s ok because they are using a word in a clever new way!’
2
Ok Boomer.
1
It sounds like plain, old intolerance (snowflake style).
3
In the old days we said "shunned."
2
Not everything is black and white...therein lies the rub. Yet another generation coming to terms with nuance.
2
Ha! I use “cancel culture” in my mind, whenever I see someone with a huge flag on a monster truck, or tossing their coffee cup out their car window.. or any other anti-social environmental idiocy. I mentally remove the offender from the planet. Poof. Makes me feel better. Boomer version of cancel culture. Wish it really worked.
3
I place no value judgments in this but....Cancel Culture? So what's old is new again? You mean shunning, yes?
John~
American Net'Zen
2
So back in the day, Gen Xer here, there was a group of kids who treated me like garbage, saying mean stuff. My friends and I finally just started to ignore them. We didn't sit there and try and find a way forward with some kid who called me fat or some girl who called my friend horse face.
This is nothing new.
Why are we so aggressive about defining Gen Z, Gen Y, Boomers, Gen X and work so hard at assigning "trend" to ideas that are really just life stage behavior? Like OMG, Millenials like to hang out in breweries with their friends. Like did not Boomers and Gen X do that? Like oooo Gen Z kids don't try and work things out with bullies! Did Millenials? Did Gen Xers? Nope.
1
Isn't this shunning?
2
Cancel 'culture' = Lord of the Flies 2019.
3
If someone is rude, insensitive, racist or otherwise a jerk, there is no law that their friends are required to continue to put up with them. In the old days, people just stopped returning their calls and inviting them to things. Nowadays, they are "cancelled". The only difference is social media.
2
And everything old is new again...what a bunch of knuckleheads. The Rolling Stones said it best
“It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Doing things I used to do
They think are new
I sit and watch
As tears go by”
1
Ideology segregation from a generation that seeks inclusion. Kinda ironic.
2
It’s like being ostracized within the Amish.
2
When did people start caring what high school kids think? Immature inexperienced uneducated children are not the sages of our time.....
1
What did I just read? This has to be one the most ridiculous things I read in a long time. Cancel me! Oh, & don’t use the word “literally” around me or you will be canceled.
“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff,” Mr. Obama said. “You should get over that quickly.”
“The world is messy; there are ambiguities,” he continued. “People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.”
There really are times when Obama has the courage to not pretend to be "woke" to please the adamant and dug in.
9
Russia and China will take over the Eurasian Continent while we tear each other apart over woke points.
3
Cancel culture is just another word for shunning which has been around since the beginning of human culture. its in immature way of dealing with others and eventually backfires. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunning
2
Two American icons said it best about this "cancel culture", self-righteous shunning:
1) “If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb,” he said, “then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, ‘Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out.’”
“That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change."
Barack Obama
2) "If you go far enough to the left, you'll meet the same type rigid, extremist jerks coming around from the right."
Clint Eastwood
7
This is not new. We called it being ostracised or “being sent to Coventry” (for some strange reason that I never got to the bottom of).
2
She was in a class about social justice? Wait, what the heck is that? Is it accredited?
3
Loving this Z generation! They are straight shooters shifting social accountability paradigms via “ok boomer” and “canceled” etc. This Gen Xer has your back.
‘Moral society” destroyed Lenny Bruce for his words, he was resurrected to icon status for a couple decades but the circle has returned and in today’s tiny-minded namby-pamby world he would be crucified all over again. Such a pathetic commentary on the state of the world.
4
"Ask a teenager. They know."
How much more graceful to have written, "Ask teenagers. They know."
It would have taken a moment's thought.
13
This article is about low-stakes social consequences for teens and young adults. That's not the "cancel culture" that bothers me.
I'm worried about the blue bubbles that equate unpopular sociopolitical opinions with human rights violations. When framed this way, poorly worded arguments and a "problematic" interest in exploring of the gray areas become potential career-enders, leading many who are troubled by the trend toward polarization to keep their minority opinions to themselves.
This is traditionally known as "a chilling effect" on the marketplace of ideas. And the resulting lack of pushback only emboldens the radicals who already have too high an opinion of their worldview.
2
What is the criteria for canceling someone? Obviously, we need to speak up when people are racist, homophobic or sexist, but in many cases this seems to go beyond that, such as the poor girl who was ostracized at school for being a little irritating. How is ostracizing someone who doesn’t agree with your views anything other than bullying? What happened to giving people a second chance?
3
Second chances have been canceled!
3
It would appear that this new crop of “progressives” have yet to read their Foucault. Talk about discipline and punishment. Yeeeesh.
I’m glad I was always more of a Tolstoy man.
3
A guillotine does not a revolution make. Psychology and morality triumph when true politics dies.
Cancel culture is moralistic. And right-wing with a liberal face. Americans have been moralistic since the first colony. Disagreements are fights; the other is guilty. Moralism attaches to the smallest things, like micro-aggressions.
It is good at war against bad, no ambiguity or uncertainty, only the ambivalence of idealization and contempt.
Resentment says, "I/we are so right, for you are so wrong."
It is cowardly and defensive. Now group identity is happiness required, thought refused, traitors seen anywhere.
It thinks it knows, does not think. Science is reduced from experimentation, discovery, interpretation, and invention to mere knowledge. Knowledge is accumulated and used in projects of mastery; it is stupid and meaningless.
Moralists argue to win and not lose rather than to understand thoughts and their reasons and think better thereby.
Moralists will equate winning and losing with being right and wrong, respectively. They fear their own vulnerability. There is no true "we" for the moralist, only the unity of enforcement within the group and war with an other outside it.
True moral judgment, like Kant's reflective judgment, infers tentative principles from particulars, rather than deducing applications of principles to them. Knowledge is represented and applied, while thinking is inventive. Like art.
Policing invents nothing.
.
5
Quality comment.
2
This is just another firm of bullying, dressed up as righteousness.
3
Bullying is a natural part of growing up and will never go away.
2
Isn't "canceling" the same as "shunning," a practice (IMO, a cruel one) used by some religious sects?
2
The woke are a religious sect. They have everything but absolution.
2
I wonder if "D" is going to now go and try to find community with some alt right guys. I mean.. we all need to find community somewhere.. its just human. Kind of illustrates the point to me that the intolerant (and 'canceling' is aggressive intolerance) left is what feeds the intolerant right.
Unfortunate all around. And oddly... in this new world that's obsessed with not bullying... this is so very bullying!
Whew! sure glad Im not a kid today.
2
Hmm, modern version of ostracism; except the Athenians let those ostracized back without penalty after 10 years.
3
Those reveling in the power to "cancel" others, are also those who would be gleefully lighting the first match to burn the "cancelled" at the stake for their supposed transgressions.
2
After my first response to this, I need to issue a partial retraction. "Cancel culture" is markedly different from how we Xers dropped friends and family. And more dangerous.
Now, boys who get canceled have the addiction of social media to remind them. Hourly.
Wonder how some mass shooters get made? This isn't healthy. Some of these canceled boys probably rush right to the Hate Web and find their new white brothers.
2
For the past several years, I've been cancelling every person that demonstrates the worst of the narcissist traits, lack of empathy, blaming others for one's own behaviors, pathological lying, etc. They call it going "no contact" with the narcissist and believe me it's the best way to end the cycle of narcissist abuse.
I hope a super majority of Americans will cancel the narcissist poster child, Donald Trump, in 2020 and end this inescapable nightmare.
I love this expression, "canceling someone". Great for those who prefer solitude (not to confuse with loneliness), instead of the mingling with chattering masses or participating in a senseless cocktail talk.
1
I don't mean to sound patronizing, but young people tend to be a bit sensitive. They'll find that once they are out of school and out in the world, these high school issues lose their meaning and the people just fade from your consciousness. All throughout life you make and unmake friendships. Sometimes you can become close to someone, but then circumstances or some action makes you wary and you start to leave a distance. It's a rare friendship that lasts throughout one's life. I have on friend that I've known for almost 30 years. Just one. My other friends are all of shorter duration. People come and go in your life. There are some people you just don't like or who don't like you. It happens. "Cancelling" is a modern term for this, but it really is just life happening. You meet someone, become friendly, as you get to know them you find they have qualities you don't enjoy, you start to move away, create distance, friendship over. It happens. No need to obsess over it.
2
Social media creates a vast imaginary sphere, mistaken for reality and truth, in which we’re all supposed to “follow” the opinions and habits of the “influencers” and care about who likes, loves or dislikes our every comment. To resist that as an adult can be challenging. Many adults revel in the skewed sense of cultural belonging that can be found in the homogeneity of following. Adolescents who grew up with constant exposure not only to social media opinionators, but to transfixed adults giving credence to their values...well, overcoming that seems an elusive business at best.
4
Canceling seems similar to the "shunning" done by some religious groups. It can be more emotionally cruel than some kinds of bullying. Dismissal hurts...
2
Cancel culture...this is nothing new, it just now has a label. Has anyone here in their lives never cut someone out due to some transgressions the person may have committed? Of course you have, we just didn't make it a "culture" and with social media, it becomes something much bigger than your typical social circle. It could include hundreds of people. Truthfully, it seems like a form of bullying the bully or bullying someone who just doesn't agree with the group. Making someone wake up (woke - not a word i like grammatically) sometimes has to be taught. By ignoring someone due to a comment or certain behavior only tends to make them angry and self-excuse their possible transgressions.
2
Yep, we’re within a couple of decades of a Civil War. My only consolation is that Thomas Jefferson recommended ocasional revolutions, but they are still terribly expensive and horribly gruesome.
2
A new term for an old move. Like most aspects of human relationships, there is no Clear Rule. If you're too quick to cancel someone over something relatively trivial, that's wrong. If you're never willing to speak up, speak out, and even cut someone off (with or without an announcement as such), that's wrong.
There are only principles here, often in conflict, and no clear rule that obviates thought and judgement. I think that's the issue here: No thought; no judgment; no context. Not desired.
One thing I'll say, though: if you're through with X, be through with them. To go around and organize, pressure others to get on board is usually (almost always) a very bad idea. It can get quite McCarthyite.
And it's not necessary, either. Just make the decision for yourself--and then shut up about it. Let others make whatever call they want. That mob mentality is pretty awful, and can even border on the quasi-fascistic. So, to the Woke (and all of us): the enemy is narcissism.
Personally, I can't really stand anyone who supports Trump. Whatever else they are, often good, that kills it for me. Like, I'm not "mad" per se, though I am: it's just that people who support putting children in concentration camps, in destroying the possibility of a decent life for everyone via climate denial, et al, kill or at least swamp the love.
My wife, however, feels differently. We have no problem with what the other one does; we understand where the other one is coming from. Unthinkable, I know!
Could this 'cancel culture' be related to the religious belief that there is only 'one true religion' - sort of cancelling any other belief? Several of the examples seem to be kids being offended by other kids, which is (I imagine) pretty common, and has existed forever (your mother wears army boots). It is the absolute denial of anyone else's opinion that strikes me as close to religion.
4
This has always existed but obviously social media takes it to a whole new realm. Give teens a bullhorn and a soap box, now add the ability to organize an audience into groups and instantly share one’s thoughts with them no matter where or when, day or night. Gee. What could go wrong?
Lord of the flies on steroids.
It would be great to have someone, I don’t know, like a First Lady teach kids how to ´be better,´ so that the culture of respect could at least have a prominent place in society. A constant reminder of going high when others go low.
When I was young, anorexic cheerleaders wanted to ´be best.´ And their path to such a goal was to push the heads of others under water. Water boarding, John Yoo, might call it, for example.
Others chose to follow a path where everyone was equal. Idk, kind of like the three branches of government laid out in the US constitution. And that spoke to me more, personally, than, let’s say, bringing criminals to a former president’s funeral.
But I guess times have changed.
We’ll see how it all plays out.
Maybe a good time to register to vote.
1
When I was a teen my dad called it trimming the fat. I was encouraged to trim bad influences and those who wronged me. Admittedly, I still remained cordial and never blocked people so far out we couldn't make amends. sometimes you need to engage in self-preservation
I'm going to sound like an old person here, but... none of this sounds all that new. Maybe having a word for it is new, and making public group decisions, but the idea of just ignoring someone has always been an option. In fact, isn't it recommended, as a better reaction than constantly getting in pointless arguments, or letting yourself get hurt and annoyed?
I guess, while it's not new, it has always been potentially a problem. What isn't discussed in the article is the situation when someone is shunned, not because of something offensive they did, but just because some appearance or mannerism, or maybe just because it's taken for granted. I guess that would be like the case of "L", who was cancelled for being an annoying, petty mooch.
(Also not discussed, but which must happen sometimes, is when someone is cancelled or shunned by one group, but is still welcome in another.)
1
Another example / offshoot of the intersection of devices and the safe space culture. If you are insecure, everything is a potential affront. People who are gratuitously mean have always regarded as jerks and people avoid them. General differences in opinion, philosophy etc are a wholly different matter. That in part is what high school and college should include - an open minded exposure to thought which may be radically different from your own. That said, the safe space mentality is the refuge of a weak mind. Some people (hopefully most) have bedrock principles that are unwavering. If exposure to thoughts different from your own send you spiraling into the abyss one would have to question your confidence in your own personal convictions. No matter your place in the political / social / ideological spectrum retreat to your particular safe space is an obstacle to growth.
Lastly, a couple comments regarding the effect of devices on culture
See “disconnect to connect” Notre Dame Observer Fri April 24, 2015
One place I didn’t expect to find commentary on this is on the most recent Disturbed album
From “In another time”
In another time
When we weren’t so blind
When the world was more than what we see online
When we actually lived instead of watching life
In another time
In another time
I’m from that time - and it’s time to put this device down and get on with my day.
1
The internet has facilitated propagation of nasty whisper campaigns, managing to exponentially spread maliciousness- in contrast to my teenage generation, which used the telephone. This is a form of bullying, and to me is a reflection of the hate so rampant in our modern society today, where our achievement culture - be your best, or else-has cancelled out humane treament of one another. All people can learn from their mistakes and evolve, and they deserve the chance to do so. Cancel culture kills them socially, so they never get that chance. What a downer it must be to live in the atmosphere of fear these poor kids are subject to today!
4
Teenage cancel culture is horrifying. But it is also, let's face it relatively low stakes.
I get the pain, trust me. I was an outcast as a teenager. It was hard to keep it all together. I just kept focusing on the idea that things would get better. And eventually, they did.
But what's truly horrifying about "cancel culture" is when it is perpetuated by adults in ways that destroy families and livelihoods. When someone who isn't quick enough to condemn a target of "cancellers" becomes the next target, ensuring the complete isolation of whoever is being gone after. Anyone who calls out the cancellers is turned on savagely.
And what's scariest is that the subjects of the cancellation are often people whose thinking is 99% in agreement with what the cancellers are saying.
We are destroying ourselves with our inability to see issues differently. With this approach that if you're not 100% with me on all things, we don't just see things differently, you are a BAD person.
Who taught these kids that it's bad to have different viewpoints? That there's only one way to think? It's terrifying.
I've never been so glad that my husband and I didn't have kids and that we're as old as we are. Because if this is the future, it's terrifying.
4
This all seems a perfectly natural development for a society as in love with its pain, and anger, and alienation as ours. I'll go ahead and cancel myself.
1
It's part of the growing inability to reason, to talk things out or to think them through. On a very broad level it's why we go to war instead of using diplomacy.
I suspect the source of the growth of canceling among teenagers comes from the use of computer games. It is also an explanation of our gun massacres, both in terms of "I will cancel you" and a canceled person taking out their frustration with a gun.
It is not new, but its explosion is. It is a sign of intolerance and it comes from our very top role models. Interplay is dying and so is reason, intelligence, tolerance, and diplomacy in America!
It's a part of our national dumbing down.
2
I left, or graduated as you Americans would say, a “posh” English grammar school nearly fifty years ago. Back in those days attitudes were very different. Rampant homophobia, casual and blatant racism, appalling sexism, mocking people with disabilities, bigoted ignorance and a complete lack of understanding of anyone who was ‘different’ were commonplace. And you can add the British class system, as it existed then, into the mix as well.
It sounds truly awful and it was. In the intervening years great social change has occurred. But we must not forgot an important factor may have been a simple discussion between people of different backgrounds, or a willingness to hear an opposing view, to acknowledge different opinions, to accept other life experiences.
To suppress a healthy dialogue, to sink to the lowest common denominator, to be fearful of speaking your mind, to not understand or acknowledge an opposing view, to demonise those that disagree with you, is to risk a return to the bad old days.
To quote a famous British telecoms ad from the 1980’s, “it’s good to talk”.
3
As many have pointed out, this Cancelling isn’t new, just a variant form of shunning. But I also wonder if those doing the Cancelling are justified or just going full PC, example being not wanting certain speakers on college campuses. The shunning part seems easy, particularly on social media. I’d like to see a return to a vigorous debate of ideas, if that’s still possible.
I was happy to see former POTUS Obama this week speak about this, we would all be wise to consider his words.
7
It is hard for me to even put into words how this reopens a scar from 50 years ago (I was in 6th grade) when a classmate, jealous of a friendship I had with another classmate, turned every girl in my class against me to help gain friends. She formed a “hate club” against me. I walked the recess playground alone and devastated for months. I begged my mother not to go to my teachers. After a thaw (my close friend said she couldn’t remember why we where not playing together), the shunning resumed and that day I broke down and cried in a assembly in the gym. A teacher from another class took me aside and found out everything. Somehow, quietly, she made the shunning disappear. This experience stayed with me and I even wrote a college essay on it.
I hope, by the publication of this article, that every teacher, counselor, college professor, resident advisor, guidance counselor, pediatrician, and parent becomes conscious of this abusive behavior now called cancelling. Now, please publish an article on how to stop this behavior or at least ways to intervene. It is a devastating behavior.
12
Not sure about all of these but D needed to be cancelled. For everyone’s wellbeing and for D to have some time for self reflection. His inability to do exactly that is not the other people’s problem.
1
I'm currently an undergrad at UC Berkeley and while I'm satisfied with my education, something that I have become hyper-aware of is cancel culture within my campus, my peers, and beyond. Cancel culture poses a threat to our ability not only to find common ground with others that we disagree with, but also the ability to critically think and address disagreements. Rather than trying to analyze someones opinion and crafting a thoughtful response or rebuttal (although it appears those days are long-gone given the current presidents demeanor), we now resort to immediately "cancelling" that person.
The other day I made a comment about the abolish ICE movement and how it doesn't seem politically plausible at the moment given our political divide. As I said that I heard a collective response of shock that I had the audacity to say such a thing. To clarify, I am a Mexican-American daughter of immigrants, and my community is plagued by fear of ICE, of course I am against their cruel policies. I'm also extremely liberal, I am pro-choice, for the protection of undocumented immigrants, pro-LGBTQ+, and would honestly never vote Republican.
It was something very interesting to experience, our country is growing increasingly divided and I find myself stepping around eggshells in a university where collaborative and dynamic discussion is supposed to take place. I do believe that we need to hold others accountable for the hurtful things they say; however, at times it goes a bit too far.
25
Odds are next time you won't talk about it; so they "win" and we all lose by not having a real dialog. I feel similarly about that issue and my liberal credentials are solid unless we're having a Kool-Aid drinking contest. Ironically, the ones trying to waterboard us with Kool-Aid are often the first to switch sides as they get older because their positions weren't really well thought out.
I sometimes think this is a response to the success the right wing has had being so unified in their beliefs/taking points but I feel like they are uniquely qualified to make use of this because of their being more religious and homogeneous whereas the bigger tent in progressivism makes it particularly harmful to our dialog.
5
Shunning people has always been an effective form of banishment and punishment for not fitting into the community for one reason or another. It's also very painful to be shunned and often it is for petty or non-existent reasons. It's not so bad when one person shuns another but when the community joins together to ban that person it can be like torture. It can also be a kind of freedom when you stop caring what the group thinks.
5
An interesting analogy to the Amish practice of shunning. I do think that this practice may have behavior change benefits, although some of the cancelled individuals may go on to the anti social behavior that we see in society. Christianity teaches us that the true balm of healing is not shunning or canceling, but love and forgiveness.
5
All things old are new again, after a time. Shunning is as old as the human race. It has been a particular practice of strict religions from their beginnings. Now kids are calling it "cancelled" but it's no different. I noticed that several of your stories noted that real contrition would cancel the cancelling. I think that as long, as there is a path to reconciliation, this is not a bad social tool. We don't teach history anymore. How are kids to know to include penance in their "cancelled" culture to make it fair & workable.
5
In the past, so long as a person practiced basic manners, it was possible to be good friends for 30 years without knowing for sure what the other person's political views were. And I've known couples who joke that they cancel out each other's votes on election day, yet they remain together based on deeper values and commitments. The internet lets everyone be political and moral exhibitionists. Social media have gotten into our heads under our skin. It's time to re-learn that it's possible to have an unspoken thought once in awhile.
12
There is absolutely nothing new here, except the method/technology used. This has been going on forever.
3
Canceling is not new and can happen at any age. At the age of 61, I cancelled my 67 year old brother, K. I have major clinical depression, clinical anxiety and insomnia and have been treated by medications for 30 years while functioning as a high level County bureaucrat. I never knew if K would be a regular guy, sarcastically mock me or just blow up in rage. After the death of our last parent in 2012 (who lived with me as her full-time companion and caregiver for the last 8 years of her life), it became apparent that being around K was toxic to my mental health. With an evil triplet of mental disorders, my anxiety levels rose with each contact with K leading to all of my comorbid mental disorders exasperating. Sometimes canceling a toxic relationship can be a lifesaver. At 65, my disorders are better controlled than ever and I want to continue on the path I have chosen.
4
@PB Sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors. It's cancelling, exascerbating and 4:50 AM here (no sleep tonight yet). I'd like to add I quit my job to be with mom, love her and care for her prior to her dying in my home from dementia. Being with mom, caring for her and treating her like the wonderful person she was is the BEST job I ever had.
1
"Canceling" is nothing more than a way to put a positive spin on bullying.
The act of canceling gives teens an emotional high, because it lets them be part of a new "in" group. Having a common enemy is a great way to reinforce group cohesiveness.
When these teens graduate, they will have a very difficult time in the workplace, when they try to "cancel" a difficult boss and difficult co-workers.
19
America is now the Oppression Olympics where everyone tries to outdo another with their hurt feelings, outsized OUTRAGE, and self righteous purity of speech and thought. Maoism in red, white and blue. If I was a young today and felt such pressure to constantly conform and think and speak just so, I'd...
9
Cancel culture is what these people will call their initiatives to defund programs like Social Security and Medicare when they attain voting and taxpaying age. Then they'll support euthanasia movements for the intolerable old people--cancel culture.
7
They already hate old people.
3
Generally, we are cruel and stupid in youth. Cancelling is just the new tool to be cruel. In Puritan days, it was called ostracization. Righteous judgement of an individual's mistake or opinion or offense is a great way to build distances between human relationships, increase tribalism, and promote PC homogeneity. Trumpism at its worst. Not much different than the thought and religious police which are code for intolerance. A dose of compassion, understanding, charity, and humility would cancel cancelling. But they are kids and kids can be cruel. Most of us grow up and out of it.
10
Best comment. I think growing out of things got cancelled in the 20th century though...
God bless those who are strong enough to disagree with apparent inappropriate utterances or actions openly.
Cancelling seems more obviously arming oneself with conforming group standards, relieving individual pressure.
There is a long history of this.
One example:
Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) actually have two forms of extreme shunning. The better-known form is called “disfellowshipping.” It usually lasts a minimum of six months, but can be reversed once the member is found to be “repentant.” The other, less talked about, form of shunning is to label someone as an “Apostate.”
Of course the ultimate squashing response is the sort of thing Jesus and Joan of Arch went through.
2
We are teaching children that it is okay to try to censor other people's behavior even when it does not involve them. First, what happened to teaching about freedom in school? I guess now that the government need not worry about the perceived influence of the former Soviet Union, its OK to encourage children to adopt one of the characteristics that prior generations were taught to fear. Secondly, what happened to teaching emotional resilience? "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never harm me"? Here it is admitted that the other child directed nothing at the "author" child, yet it appears that she is encouraged to try to stifle the other child's actions. I fear more for the tenor of out future culture than even for future global warming.
5
Little room is shown in these reports for the hard and serious work of reconciliation. It takes real conviction about the nature of people, awareness of oneself, the skill of serious dialogue, and a true desire to understand and engage positively.
6
The only difference between "cancel culture" and regular bored-and-making-drama life is the internet echo chamber, and in some cases that can actually be a devastating difference. I would also hate to think that parents are giving up their retirement income to put their kids through college only to have their prejudices amplified, or their minds turned dogmatic. You're supposed to learn how to entertain different perspectives, listen to others you may disagree with, research, even debate in favor of position you don't hold. Yeah, it's a drag to work with people who are different from you and whom you even dislike. That's why respect, not phony "cancellation" and name-calling is more effective long-term.
8
Some have said that this is basically the same as shunning that has occurred in cults and high school in the past, and even the present. I would have to politely disagree (and, hopefully, I won’t get “cancelled” for that).
Because of the extent of social media, this shunning/cancellation can spread far wider then in the past. Shunning usually stayed mostly in the group because it spread by social contact. Now days, social contact can be far wider. There are people responding to this article from as far away as Norway. And this comment of mine will be able to be viewed for a good long while. That means you can look at my actual words months from now, from the other side of the globe.
Global networks can also be used to spread misinformation much farther and quicker than in the past. Think of how many media consultants work with CEOs of big companies to make sure their message is crafted in such a manner as to not be misconstrued and have their company be “cancelled” by a significant section of the public. All it takes is one person in an “echo chamber” environment to read one comment from you on social media and that group in the “echo chamber” shuns you, and that group may even be international in scope.
There were very few organizations in the past that could effectively “cancel” someone is that large an area without killing them. And it had to be a much more hierarchical group to have the same effect that a much smaller, more local, group has today.
2
Canceling someone “takes away the option for them to learn from their mistakes and kind of alienates them.”
Yeah...because racists, bigots, and Trump supporters really learn from their mistakes?
I don't think so!
The willfully ignorant CONTINUALLY DOUBLE DOWN on their mistakes. That's the American way. Has Trump's cadre of supporters 'learned' from the plethora of horrible mistakes that Trump has made in less than 3 years? Do they admit that Trump is a traitor to his country and works directly with Putin to undermine America?
Of course not. Trump has just as much support as he did when he was elected.
I completely understand why somebody would want to compartmentalize and 'cancel' those types of people in the future.
The media continues to espouse this 'hold hands with your enemy' strategy and turn a blind eye to the radicalization that is happening in America.
White supremacists didn't learn from MLK, or the Civil Rights Act, or the Obama presidency, because they are now openly killing more people than violent islamic terrorists ever have.
I think the media should probably start to look at the big picture, because you are missing out on a lot of details these days. I understand the need to have a 'happy ending'...but, that's not how 'real life' works.
I'm sorry to break it to you, but there's no happy ending to any of this.
2
I share your frustration but the article is specifically taking about young people whose racism is probably more recent (in the case of kids getting it from the internet) or taught by their parents and not really their own.
I don't think they are incapable of being reached, in fact the heir apparent for Stormfront who regrettably authored many current supremacist taking points as a teenager has completely disavowed his past life because some kids at college decided to not be lazy and cancel him and instead he changed his worldview.
I'd also like to ask how cancelling isn't turning a blind eye? Sure they are cancelled to you and their group but they continue to exist outside your vision, sometimes getting more bitter and hostile as the D guy in the article...
So glad I'm not in college today. In 1960 I was shunned by only one person in four years (because I wore an armband one day supporting a protest against the run-up to nuclear war between the US and the USSR).
Social media has empowered group-think, making cancel culture much more harmful. Like the witch trials, people who know better participate because they fear that otherwise it will happen to them.
8
This sounds like what was always around and was called a cold shoulder.
2
"When it comes to cancel culture, it’s a way to take away someone’s power"
The absolute opposite in fact. They took all power over you, sent you into denial and a fantasy world!
4
Growing up in a Christian household in the 60's and 70's, we were taught 'not to rock the boat,' about the rude and unwelcome behaviors pf relatives, neighbors, teachers, church members, store clerks, etc. It didn't matter how offensive, ignorant, snarky, passive-aggressive or belligerent the person might act, the worst thing we could do is to upset them! We were the ones who were scolded when we challenged aunt Rose after she made snide comments about Jews. Our parents thought difference was the answer to all such egregious behaviors and expressions - 'it doesn't help,' was always their quiet admonishment when we got home.
I for one think it is high time to remove the boorish and uncivil behaviors from our midst. If aunt Rose wants to be a bigot, it doesn't mean we have to spend Thanksgiving with her. If my co-worker is constantly telling off-putting jokes even after we have asked them to stop, we are NOT obligated to chip in for their birthday. It is time to put the bullies, braggarts, and spewers of prejudice, lies, and deceit out of our camp. Yes, a few admonishments and warnings on their inappropriate behavior is the way to start. Almost always it is futile and they only become defensive. After that, we do not owe them our allegiance or acceptance.
We need to be on a journey filled with truth, grace, and love. And I for one, am no longer willing to wait on the unwilling and try and convince them to come along. Cancel their subscription to my attention. Time to go.
4
AKA shunning. Let's all get in a snit and shun each other. No contact, no problem? Or be like Inquisitors and break flesh over fine points?
7
Regardless of one's point of view regarding what cancel culture is and isn't, one aspect of it that I think is craven and pathetic is the conformity of it, i.e. kids getting together and agreeing to ostracize another kid - not even for the same reason - instead of truly thinking on their own two feet as autonomous individuals. They're so afraid of not fitting in, they're willing to not do the right thing if someone isn't their idea of perfect. It's a new level of abhorrence on the part of some kids these days, who evidently are spiritually weak. No backbone, little to no objectivity, and a real group-think approach to their own lives. It's a drag.
9
Cancelling is just bullying through isolation.
17
Funny stuff? Young people deciding to gang up on someone to unleash the power of rejection and isolation using pushbutton technology. Sounds like Russian spybots, mostly.
6
Cliques and outcasts, the stuff of middle-school and high school for ages, but now with self-righteous justification.
13
Surprised to read this behavior happens among college-aged people. It’s so infantile. Is this what happens when everyone gets a trophy? Grow some body armor and some tolerance for different opinions and move on. Can these people be more self-absorbed? Man, they’re prisoners to their own behavior and tiny universe bubbles, and they don’t even realize what else is out there.
13
You had me until you said “trophy.”
1
And this is why "cancel culture" will be the death of America. Because now it will be considered acceptable for you to not have to listen to someone with a different opinion than your own. "Oh they think differently from me, I dont want to or need to hear it because my opinion is right, there's is wrong so I just "cancel" them".
wake up America. Our "wokeness" is not being awake. Its cancel culture which says we dont have to listen to anyone else's opinion because it's not ours and we don't want to hear it.
How did we get here?
16
So what you’re saying is that you won’t listen to the people who won’t listen.
I've never heard of this canceling trend, thank goodness, and I work in a middle/high school building. The whole thing seems shallow and narcissistic.
It's one thing to decide that you don't really want to talk to so-and-so anymore. It's another thing when you tell the world your intent. The public cancellations are just mean. And there is an air of moral superiority to them that is not flattering.
I think people have the right to tell another person that they don't like what the person did or said. People should stand up for their beliefs. However, cancelling has a very nasty connotation.
To say someone is cancelled is much more cutting than to say, "I'm not talking to so-and-so anymore." Cancelling is basically like saying someone is dead to you. Worse than that though, because it takes away someone's humanity that they can be so easily cancelled.
Michelle Obama said, "When they go low, we go high." Cancelling is the exact opposite of this. Again, I'm not saying one has to be friends with someone who is offensive, but it should be a personal, private decision, not a group, public proclamation.
Maybe I'm just too old to understand...
7
"Today, kindness, acceptance, and respect for diversity are more valued, and that’s great." Not true!
2
Sounds like old-fashioned shunning to me.
4
I blame everyone for their transgressions except myself. I project my shadow onto others, thereby eliminating my own dark side. This seems more like Stalin's revenge than progress.
5
I'm almost 60 and can't count the number of times I've been cancelled or cancelled someone myself. There is really nothing new here, unless you want to justify your own worldview that liberal perspectives are ruining this country.
1
I think the problem is not those who are steering clear of overt racists, misogynists, and homophobes. It's more about the lack of civility that is being displayed for slight missteps.
Not looking at someone? Refusing to even speak to someone? We're not talking about being besties. But I've seen this behavior over and over again, even among adults, where some slight misstep that no one will even tell you about turns people you see regularly, attend classes with, etc. into people who will refuse to even look at you, let alone speak to you.
Canceling someone doesn't help that person learn to be better, especially if they don't know why (like one of the girls in this story). And even if they *do* know why, it doesn't give them a chance to experience acceptance (again, not friendship but acceptance) if they learn from their mistakes.
And moreso, what does it say about people if they cannot tolerate someone who is not a racist, sexist, or homophobe but just has a slightly different opinion or mannerisms or way of life?
6
Cancel Culture?
There is not culture here.
So one can cancel a teacher, boss, subordinate, colleague, parent, sibling?
This is just immature adolescent behavior and is not particularly new.
Sorry, life does not work like that.
People do not get canceled.
While reading this I could think of only one retort: "grow up"!
5
I suspect some folks might benefit from a good listen to Dylan's "My Back Pages." Repeat as necessary.
1
Setting boundaries, that's important to learn. I'm all for canceling, shunning, ostracizing, ignoring someone whose conduct is hurtful and hateful and who persists in that conduct despite being told that it is hurtful. No reason to give attention to a narcissist. No reason to go through life with fake smiles and pleasantries.
It's a good thing for hurtful people to feel social consequences. Now, if someone really is simply ignorant and is willing to change, that's different. But the examples were of people who refused to grasp that they caused pain.
Sometimes it takes years to recognize that a friends is toxic. Like a cancer toxic. There is no chemo for this situation, the best course of action is to simply cut the cancer from your life.
You’ll be better for it.
2
Funny how often those crusading against real or imagined intolerance are frequently the most intolerant.
6
Canceled is the same as “ you are dead to me” it seems... Nothing here. Accept the article could go deeper into how possibly “dead to me” may be more sensitive to the Teens? Not sure.
Yeah, we had this. it was called "shunning", and it was as childish and nebulous as "cancel culture" is today.
2
Cancel culture sounds like a Black Mirror-inspired version of modern-day shunning, accelerated by social media. This is not new to human nature, but the medium through which taboos are being formed today is a fascinating topic.
4
"Cancel Culture" is just another term for Shunning, or Ostracism, or any of the many ways humans through time - have driven those who don't agree with them - from their midst. Wasn't Rhode Island founded because Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusettes Bay Colony for his outspoken ways? I guess today we'd say The Puritans Cancelled Roger Williams.
2
I'm 64 years old so I can say with confidence that canceling has been active in my world for many decades. "You're dead to me." I canceled two co-workers a few years ago after being subject to their sexual harassment. They didn't get it and I don't have time to explain it to them. Let HR handle it.
222
@Debra Singleton ,
It sounds as if these two co-workers ganged up on you, where three is a crowd, and you are the punching-bag.
Time to move on, as you did, or you would become an abetter of this behavior, responsible for this ongoing pattern, making you feel belittled and shamed.
A brilliant engaging friend of mine in our age group recently had an experience where she was taken to task for the way she lives, her environment and her life choices by two others; one who is her intellectual match, the other who follows in her shadow.
After listening to days of what is known as 'The Loop', I asked what is it about this friend that makes you seek her good opinion. There was plenty of good in the forthcoming explanation, but a thin-line where bullying rears its negative head. A friendship worthy of being salvaged, but Pax re-established, a cautionary note to be on the outlook for renewals of hostility.
The Workplace. Forty years ago, a fantastic bully by nature twice my age, was leading a condemnation rally, but I waited it out because I sensed that 'eventually' she would lead them on to the next victim. She did, and eventually got canned.
True, it helped to have friends in other divisions of the office, and I hope not to have bored each and every one at lunch with these infractions and poor behavior, but I do not believe so, and HR never came into the picture.
"You're dead to me" has been a temptation on occasion, with a preference for "on hold until further notice".
5
So basically, canceling is pre-school, childish behavior where one chooses to not deal with reality and refuses to accept the views/opinions of others whom they disagree with.
2
Sarah Lawrence, huh? These kids really live in a bubble. They're worrying about heteronormativity. To me a trivial concern next to the future of the planet and American democracy.
6
Judge not, that you be not judged.
As others here have pointed out, the cruel and extremist culture described in this article is illberal as it gets. I hope it fades away soon.
4
Cancel culture? Ugh. It's just more political correctness run amok, where anyone who decides that someone else is 'offensive', must then make it publicly known that they 'disapprove' of the other person. If this were not about political correctness and/or garnering favor with one's peers, gaining Likes and Thumbs Up, then...why make it so public when you 'cancel' someone? Why not just ignore the individual whom you don't like, and be done with it?
And now there's even a new verb of 'misgender' (someone)? Oye.
No wonder Trump is going to win again.
4
Cancel culture is just this generation's take on the normal human activity of shaming, excluding, and isolating members of the tribe that won't or can't conform to its norms. That cancel culture seems to take things to such ridiculous lengths is probably just a matter of perspective. Those who have lived long enough to understand that life is not black and white realize there isn't much to get upset over. You've been canceled? Welcome to the human race. We've all been there!
1
“When someone shows you who they are, you better believe them “. That saying has helped me quite a few times.
1
What simplistic thinking and total drivel. These children think they're being progressive? Furthering a cause? They are turning on one another, creating anger and isolation. Not what our society needs right now. Try telling D why supporting Trump is, to his (former) friends, so abhorrent. Teach something. Learn something. Go a little deeper than, "I'm not talking to him anymore because he doesn't feel the exact same way as I do. So there." How and where are they learning this? What if these children had to experience actual hardship? Not hearing a racist slur, but being beaten, falsely accused of a crime, imprisoned for 20 or 30 years? "Misgendered?" So everyone around you should know that though you may appear to be female or male, you prefer not to be referred to as such? How is that an expectation? I work in a small museum and recently someone was going into a space in which backpacks aren't allowed due to the fragility of the displays. Her back was to me, so I said, "Ma'am?" to get her attention. She turned around and told me that she is indigenous so calling her ma'am is insulting to her. Wha? There's no way others can know your salutation preference unless you wear a sign. Here's a thought: be civil and respectful to one another. If someone inadvertently says something you don't like by singing along with a song, blame the song writer, not the guy who was singing along with it.
4
I read the article on Canceling and it added to my concerns about where we are heading as a culture.
Then I read the 200 comments, and my faith in humanity is restored. The overwhelming majority of NYT readers abhor the shunning practice for reasons exquisitely expressed. As context, I am a 68 year old fiscal conservative who would like to vote middle of the road on nearly everything, but has been cruelly denied b the current political and media culture. This was a breath of fresh air and feeds optimism. Thanks Guys (Uh oh, I inadvertently uttered a non-politically correct gender specific faux pas). But now I know that the vast majority will not cancel me!!
5
This sort of behavior is nothing new, even if it has a new name.
2
This all seems very Lord of the Flies.
That said, we all need to cancel Trump.
Call it cancelled if you like. But it sounds like bullying by people who don’t want to admit it.
8
Isn't this yet another example of social network tyranny? Who says that any of the kids noted in the article have a right to pass judgement on anyone else? What level of maturity have they reached?
No, I don't like or approve of people making homophobic or racist slurs or speaking disparagingly, but who gets to decide who has gone too far? I have a friend whose child was born female and now identifies as male. I have known the child (now he is an adult) since he was born, but I confess I still have difficulty using the right pronoun.
Will I be cancelled? Who decides?
2
This article was painful to read. It reminded me of my own experience, over 20 years ago, of having been subtly ostracized by my friend group toward the end of a Junior Year Abroad program consisting of all women. I think the experience permanently altered my personality -- I'm no longer as free to be my silly, authentic self.
Deciding to separate yourself from an annoying or disempowering friend is perfectly reasonable. Collectively deciding as a group that a friend is dead to you due to some unforgivable flaw can be devastating to the person in question.
3
This article makes me a little sad. People are more divided then I have ever seen. Do we really need something else that separates us? People are so busy policing others on everything that may not be "woke" that we miss some really good things that could bring us together. I am in no way saying that racial or homophobic slurs are ok in anyway, and some people are bullies. But to "cancel" someone and they don't even know why is ridiculous. Good people make mistakes. We are all flawed. It is important to be tolerant and open to differences, and it is important to stick up for others and right some wrongs. However when it gets to the point that we are shunning or cancelling others because of something they said or did and not giving them the chance to correct themselves we are no longer advocating but are becoming the very thing that we were trying to call out.
262
@ktmsw
If you were the person being asked why you were cancelled, would you be saying, "Yes, it's because of repeated failures on my part and a refusal to take accountability for them," or would you say, "It's for some ridiculous, untrue reason or mistake that I'm not even aware of?"
11
@ktmsw in one of the very few times i cancelled someone - it was because they sexually harassed me. when i called them out on it and they refused to own up and apologize for their behavior, they were "cancelled".
sometimes, you just dont need certain people to be in your life anymore. if they disrespect you and refuse to apologize for their transgression, why bother with them unless you have to for some outside reason?
18
My first reaction was "hey, not much has changed since I was in high school 50 years ago. Kids can be jerks. Being excluded from the cool kids table didn't kill me". But factoring in the impact of social media does change things. We can opine that young people are too enmeshed in social media, but that doesn't change the dynamic. The practice of "cancelling" in its most extreme form sounds similar to the practice of shunning among the Amish, or declaring a person "cherem" among ultra-orthodox Jews. Many other religious & cultural groups enforce a type of severe social exclusion to punish member who step out of line. It's widely acknowledged to psychologically damaging. More and more I wonder if the benefits of social media can really outweigh its demerits. Its power to weaponize mean, petty behavior and words seems to know no bounds. It makes me glad I'm not a teenager anymore.
5
This behavior, however it is termed today, is plain, old cruelty.
It’s been going on since time began.
The interesting thing is that it’s usually done in groups against one person.
I don’t understand why we are not able to teach children (and adults) to have the courage and courtesy to address the person you are upset with directly. Talk it out and work it out.
It’s better than calling, texting, or however they form their “gang”.
It’s all fun and games until you hurt someone so badly they commit suicide or when your turn comes around. It always does.
Do yourself and others a favor and grow up, learn how to communicate your feelings and CANCEL this horrible behavior.
Maybe think about getting off social media or lessen time spent on it.
It’s a cesspool.
2
How is this different from shunning?
1
Ostracism from groups, and shunning, especially in high school, has always been a fact of life. I graduated in 1969 and it certainly was a factor then. The difference is that the word "cancel" makes it official, which gives the whole thing an insulting aura of definitiveness and permanence that it did not have before. Once the word is used you certainly know where you stand, and it makes the whole thing much harder to ignore.
Just asked my sociable 15 year old if anyone in his school talks about being cancelled or cancelling people and he said he'd never heard of it.
1
Ambiguity is a fundamental part of every relationship. Declaring “good riddance” in any relationship perpetuates the very same bullying that the victimized individual originally suffered from. Without forgiveness, all relationships will be superficial and lack any depth.
It makes me sad to see young people shun each other for being just that: young people. When we are young we need to experiment with identity and learn from our mistakes. The stress of a rigid "perfect" conformity and the possibility of rejection must be overwhelming . Especially when the crippling power of social media factors in. Adolescence is a time for venturing out and for closeness with your peer group. It's not a time for being shut down and shut out.
7
Shunning someone is also a way to control the in-group's members. It enforces conformity. It has been used before, by many groups, often hard line religious groups.
Yet these are people who think they celebrate non-conformity, and would never see themselves as like a hard line religious community that enforces its rules on its members in that way.
They explain that they "didn’t care to hear what he had to say, because he wouldn’t change his mind and was beyond reason." That describes them too, and their own behavior. They won't change their minds, can't be reasoned with, won't listen to anything but their own words.
They don't see themselves, don't know themselves, and are apparently quite sure they do both.
5
I usually see critique of things like canceling and definitely as everything new it is not perfect and often taken too far or just wrong, but otherwise I see this general movement of sensitivity toward words as progress. Words do hurt, maybe even more, and similarly to how we do not accept now beating and physical force to make your point, we should not accept offence and manipulations to achieve the same.
“For even the hatred of squalor makes the brow grow stern. Even anger
against injustice makes the voice grow harsh. Alas, we who wished to lay the foundations of kindness could not ourselves be kind.”
From To Posterity
Bertolt Brecht
11
“ After her teacher left the room”
This is the second article I’ve read recently where it’s mentioned that a teacher has left the room and students have been left unsupervised. I don’t know about other states, but in California, that’s a very good way to lose your teaching credential. Even at the high school level, why do teachers think it’s okay to wander off?
4
In general, teachers don’t “wander off”. As a seventh year science teacher, seldom have I had to leave the room, but there are exceptions such as taking a student outside for a short redirect to avoid humiliation in front of classmates. I have rarely seen any of my colleagues leave their NYC high school classrooms and never have I witnessed a teacher “wandering off”, ever.
5
Mature western Christianity (for example, it’s what I know best) has its flaws as a human social construction but provides a complete system of ethics: guidelines on what is “sinful,” acknowledgment that no person is without sin, ways to seek forgiveness and atone, models for personal growth and ways to “get right” with God and with others. Now we are seeing young people struggle with creating a new ethical system out of the whole cloth of our terrifying world and confusing society. This is necessarily a communal process and as such entails injustice and unfairness as it reworks what it means to be a good human being.
I wish the members of the younger generations the best in this historic endeavor. Remember: as long as you are struggling conscientiously with developing your own value system and personal behavior, you are never a Bad Person. I wish I could say that God loves you just as you are, but most of you are going to have to find new ways to believe that your unique existence on earth has infinite value.
6
All I can say is thank God I went to college when I did, in the 80s.
6
So, when they don’t like someone they ignore that person . . .how is that different from when the rest of us were kids?
4
The word “cancelled” commits a permanence that is unyielding. That did not exist when I was growing up and generally kids who were avoided had opportunities to reconnect and rebuild friendships.
2
What strikes me most about these young people's stories is how willing they are to have difficult conversations, openly and among friends. When I was that age (high school and college, and even middle school) I "cancelled" people I found abhorrent, narcissistic, vulgar, or unbearable, except it wasn't announced. I could take a cold shoulder and freeze someone out for years, and in fact I did just that with several people. And yes, there are even people from HS that so disgusted me that twenty years later I even declined their friend requests on FaceBook (back when I used it).
It seems to me that the big difference is that it is discussed openly. I don't have to announce that I am "cancelling" someone. I quietly remove my attention and let them go on their way.
5
Cancel culture isn’t woke. It is selfish and condescending. What’s the point of being woke if you would only treat is like a crown of glory?
Educated people should always remember that everyone has the hope to be reformed — the point of reformative justice. The contemporary band, The 1975 pointed it out in their song “Sincerity is Scary” that we should instead “call in”, that means, the approach should be humane and in a kind manner.
It is even ironic that people are labeled as “woke” but doesn’t even embody its main premise — to educate kindly.
4
Why put your name on mainstream social media sites? interact with your classmates in real-time. That's normal life. Social media is abnormal and is capable of crippling the self-confidence of tender young minds. Be proud, be independent, claim your right to NOT PARTICIPATE in Facebook. There are many other, better, quieter websites to contribute to.
3
How is all this different from just plain old ghosting....
1
This is a new level of hatefulness for America.
Having moved to France to escape the American culture of hate we were welcomed to our new country with warmth and kindness.
Vive la France!
4
Life is too complex and no one is a saint on this planet. Cancellation culture speaks volumes about immaturity of people involved. Physically and mentally outcasting others on one pretext or the other doesn’t speak good about future leaders.
Those, who might have offended some people knowingly or unknowingly must be given chance to correct themselves lest they might go into depressor or even commit serious unwarranted offences, which is no good for the betterment of society.
4
It used to be called "shunning." In 19C England, it was "cutting." Now among teenagers in 2019, it's "canceling." You don't talk to people who've broken the rules, whatever the rules may be.
Paying attention to the social lives of teenagers is not worth an adult's time.
2
These kids are behaving with a mob mentality. This makes them no different from true believers of McCarthyism, religious groups who shun anyone who questions the dogma, and the crowds shouting “Make America Great Again!”
The ideas they profess to stand for are different, but the difference is superficial. Give them a new cause in 10 or 15 years and they’ll embrace that, too, regardless of its substance.
This is our fault. We have failed these children, in large part by insulating them from the world out of a paranoia over pedophiles and kidnappers, by sanitizing their childhoods, and by focusing on bubble tests instead of novels and history books. And we wonder why they can’t handle a difference of opinion.
5
I’m just an old Northern California hippie, but there is a reason I avoid living in the United States anymore. I enjoy the Pacific Northwest summer and am a fanatical disc golf player, or I wouldn’t come back at all. The US is a bitter and divisive place which is falling and failing as every past historical empire has. And it’s not pretty to watch.
2
Spare us the adolescent drama, please.
My, my, my... I never heard the term "cancel culture" until reading this article. It didn't impact me before, and it won't impact me now.
1
Everyone is human and everyone makes mistakes. Why would you want to totally write off someone's existence for a mistake? If it's not a mistake and they were deliberately offensive in some way to you over and over, then it's perfectly fine to not be friends with them that's the mature thing to do. But, then trying to ganging up on the person with several others is not okay and not fair. Maybe your own action influences the person to change. Their mistake shouldn't follow them for years.
190
@p.a. 100% agree. The lack of willingness to dialogue and understand and allow people the space to apologize for a mistake is awful.
15
@Guy Sajer There's plenty of space to apologize for a mistake, but that's the thing--you have to apologize, and truly try to make yourself better. If you are generally a jerk to others and don't apologize and don't change, then no one wants to be your friend.
12
@p.a. Sometimes, you just have to protect yourself. Canceling is a benign way to remove evil influences from your life.
4
Cancel culture seems to be just another way to perpetuate an “us vs. them”mentality. Like others have said, it pushes people into an impossible binary. Cancel culture is way to draw a clear line between “good” and “bad” people and canceling the latter. But good and bad is just a myth perpetuated by the ego, everyone wants to think they’re “good.” The way the “cancelers” rationalize their actions is very telling.
213
The phenomenon is also an outgrowth of social media, with ‘likes’, ‘dislikes’, ‘claps’ and ‘blocking’.
Normalizing rudeness and disrespect for another’s opinion has become a currency for these platforms, who’s owners think they are indispensable for the ‘global village.’ Hardly.
I'm a Boomer. This 'cancel'-ing doesn't seem to be anything new, just perhaps more widespread and pervasive due to our high density digital media. In the 70s, people who didn't 'fit in' were quickly disregarded. For all sorts of reasons ranging from political to trivial. Sometimes unfair (very unfair if the offense was being merely fat and pock-faced, or no dress sense), but it happened. Sometimes would correct itself, more often than not, the problem person just 'went away'. I am a little bit concerned that people are trying so hard for a kind of ultra-conformity, and are trying to regulate the social environment to do so (safe spaces, pronoun wars, etc).
1
I'm just thankful that there was no social media when I was in school/college.
4
I've seen and experienced "cancel" behavior, of course, as has anyone who ever attended high school. But back in my day we weren't nearly cool, enlightened, or woke enough to "discuss pronoun use and call on the entering freshmen to battle heteronormativity and cisgender language.”
Back then we just called it "bullying."
4
Intolerance by any other name is still intolerance. Shutting out others or shutting down oneself leaves you only in a place of isolation. Probably not best way to live the one life we get.
1
The problem with “cancel culture” and other similar thought processes is that removes the dignity that is inherent to every person.
3
Many commenters have asserted that "cancel culture" is nothing new. While decisions over friendship and association have clearly existed as long as humanity, there are some differences. Social media acts as a huge megaphone or multiplier far beyond the immediate millues of yesteryear. The consequences can be much more devastating. The other aspect is the culture of brutal intolerance and censorship which is being normalized among so-called "progressives," and very dangerously enforced by more and more institutions such as universities. An example is the virulent censorial regime around Transgenderism. There is a world of difference between the right to privacy, and freedom of individual choice, which fundamentally is the right to be left alone to live one's life, and demands which encroach on the rights of others. You can ask me to use whatever personal pronoun you like, and I will decide whether I agree. To organize digital lynch mobs to demand compliance upon pain of expulsion from school, or firing, or utter social immolation is simply reactionary, and betrays nefarious agendas that have nothing to do with human freedom, respect, or anything "progressive."
5
All of the old people here saying this is nothing new don’t understand. The point is not to focus on the point of ‘cancellation’. That is bad, but the real terror is the culture of fear it creates. Even in professional circles you cannot make good faith, reasonable suggestions in favour of nuance without running the risk of being cancelled forever. It is a culture now where everyone must be silent and everyone must agree. Anything short if that will get you thrown out.
This goes well beyond youthful bullying.
13
Shunning around social norms is nothing new in teen circles - I remember it in the 60's and I'm sure that my grandparents would recognize it from their youth. Cruel and unfair scapegoating and bullying have been around since the dawn of civilization. Teens are also always caught in the tension between the soothing coherence of conformity and the excitement of individual difference, politics notwithstanding. But this article conflates different sorts of what used to be called peer pressure.
When a social group defensively rejects and isolates real bullies and miscreants, that's not the same as a bullying group isolating an innocent target to enhance its own solidarity.
When a group formed around a set of beliefs or values excludes a dissenter, that's not the same as a group actively seeking out and targeting individuals with different beliefs for social humiliation.
Seems to me that although contemporary teens undoubtedly engage in all of the usual peer cruelty, and do so with terrible technological armament, they may be the first generation that also frequently prioritizes real effort to examine that behavior, sort out motivation and rationale, and make a conscious effort to protect real victims. This can lead to some pretty tortured rationalizing, but it's a commendable start. The technological weaponizing of social media simply makes that necessary.
3
I have no room or time in my life for people who: deny climate change; the merits of vaccination; or whether LGBTQ and people whose skin colour is different to mine are entitled to equal treatment. The facts on these subjects are everywhere and if they still refuse to face them, I am at a loss as to how talk to them apart from the usual social pleasantries. I don't want to get upset with them, so I stay out of their way. The problem seems to be that people confuse subjects on which all views are equal - say, whether governments should provide a welfare safety net such as universal health care - and those that are not open to opinion. The climate is changing, extinctions are accelerating, and human activity is largely responsible; vaccination prevents the spread of diseases that can be deadly; people cannot control their sexuality or their colour. To be told, well that's just your opinion, is infuriating and I don't have the emotional energy to spare. I am not immature: I am 63. I have no problem "cancelling" people who refuse to face reality and therefore pose a social danger. Even if I like them!
8
Marie - I have no room in my life for hypocrites. So with regards to your strong opinions on climate change, I sincerely hope you are subsisting solely on organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables, not eating any meat or dairy products, not driving a car, not flying on a plane, not buying any products made in any factory anywhere in the world, and not using heat, a/c or electricity (that includes watching tv, Marie) where you live and/or work. Thanks, Marie, for doing your part to stop climate change. xx
3
Is this the new term for being ex-communicated? It is quite surprising as well as very disturbing on how teenagers of todays society are taking extreme measures to avoid their peers. To put it into a simple, relative, and universal perspective of how serious this problem is and has become, any sensible person can look to see that the generations before had this same issue. Thus the source of the teenage cancel culture is not sourced from anything new, but has evolved with a more devastating effect since the advent of social media. Look at our current state of political affairs.
The current events of todays society, and the ability to access it on social media platforms does play a heavy influence on the emotions and feelings of todays youth. Tie that in with disinformation, false information, misinformation, and individuals who are in positions to have an immense affect on the future outlook for tomorrows youth; the magnitude of how serious this problem is, only becomes more apparent. It definitely is not easy to be a teenager with access to social media in this day and age.
To closely relate, my own experiences of perhaps being 'Canceled' by close friends during my teenage years did have a major difference. There was no 'calling me out'. Even to this present day(more than twenty years in some), none of them choose to discuss with myself the specific events that may have led up to such a 'Cancellation(s)'. It is an experience I never wish upon anyone, nor done the same way.
4
In other words, this is a form of organized bullying with the intent of isolating an individual for having different opinions. This sounds like a recipe for disaster for someone who may have an emotional or mental issues already weighing heavily on him or her. I pray to God that one of the victims of these bullies do not harm others from their distress.
I am not a mental health expert but from reading from multiple sources it does not seem like those guilty of school shootings we’re healthy members of society with a strong support system of family and friends for the most part they were loners. Be careful for what you ask for...
14
I spent my last two years of high school at Adolfo Camarillo High School in Camarillo, California from 1961 to 1963.
We had a mixed race and ethnic student body in a semi rural community.
During the two years I attended there was no evidence of canceling or shunning of any kind. I cannot recall even one instance of hateful behavior from a student or faculty member.
That was another America, long gone and not likely to return.
When we retired in 2000 and became expats in France we were greeted with warmth and a welcome attitude by all our new neighbors. Our Provençal community is like 1960 Camarillo, California.
12
@Michael Kittle
I graduated several decades ago from a school very similar to yours. While not every student hang around with every other student, we did show a certain level of decorum towards each other.
5
I graduated college less than a decade ago, and I find it deeply disturbing that anyone would be so ideologically invested in the denial of reality as to say that things have always been this way. In fact, this article doesn't show just how far things have gone on college campuses (where I'm currently a grad student and instructor). It's not just Trump voters and those using racial slurs who are subject to the exclusion described: I mean, there aren't enough Trump voters among the very young to make such a phenomenon widespread if they were the only victims. A left-wing young person who (to name one real-life example I've seen) disagrees in class with intersectionality as a method of advancing progressive causes can be the subject of a fairly widespread movement to isolate the offender - a movement in which friends will enlist friends. My concern stems not just from who is subjected to this treatment, but also from the extreme extent of it. I'm sorry, but nothing like the extensive, systematic takedowns of today happened on a regular basis when someone said something un-PC in an undergrad class in 2008. Yes, conservatives can be snowflakes too, and that absolutely should be pointed out. That doesn't make this behavior decent, moral, or normal when it comes from young progressives. No, this didn't happen when you were young, and it's rather callous of some commentators here to brush off extreme bullying that way.
21
How is this different from previous generations? There has always been some form of ostracizing an individual by a group. Other than a new name for it and the prevalence of social media, same as excommunicating someone.
3
Cancel culture sounds a lot like shunning or excluding from the '80s.
6
This. This is why young people are not in charge-- for which we can all be thankful. I'm sure they'll make great leaders... in about 40 years.
12
Sad that so many people are so desperate for attention and belonging that they claw for it by self-righteously pushing others down. Love is kind, love is patient, love forgives. Those who love are loved.
15
It seems that the tool that makes this new cancel culture possible and encourages it is social media. I think social media might be the most destructive force of anything I have ever encountered in my life. Cancel it.
26
Look, you have every right to dislike the particular tactics used, to criticize, to consider the viewpoints overly puritan. What you're not entitled to is your own facts.
So I'd like to hear any statistics or other evidence about actual harms that run beyond "feeling bullied". If that's the outer extent of the problem... well, we have bigger ones.
2
Cancel Culture combines two, sometimes three, things into its toxic formula. First, intolerance. People are not to be reasoned with or engaged in conversation or debate, because young people today often cannot endure anything remotely uncomfortable. What goes hand-in-hand with this is an almost sociopathic selfishness, which is required to be able to turn away abruptly and permanently from a close friend because you've gotten the "word" from someone above you in the hierarchy of your social milieu.
Second, it involves ganging up. Cancel Culture is all about spreading gossip and enhancing the target's offense in order to corral an entire social group against the target to render the target an outcast.
Third, very often Cancel Culture makes use of social media to magnify its impact and punish the target for anything from the smallest unintentional slight to a disagreement over a cutting edge issue of the day. I am so grateful that I am no longer a kid because my views fall in line with no group uniformly, not left, not right. I would most certainly be canceled from any group were I still in school.
57
In the past, friends were hard to come by and most of us learned to overlook the negative and bond over commonalities. Theae days, you can join a tribe on your phone, fall for confirmation bias and tell yourself a majority agree with you and ignore the half of the population you disagree with and suffer no consequences. The result? Rampant division and divisiveness in all fronts.
I am amused, however, by progressives wearing blinders assuring themselves that conservatives practice cancel culture too. LOL
14
"Cancel culture" is not a new thing. Just a new name for blocking, unfriending, avoiding, and other similar actions meant to remove someone from your life and history. It was done in Egypt by the Pharaohs.
8
In junior high and high school, this "cancelling" stuff went on all the time; you can call it what you want. Parents need to talk to their kids about bullying, cancelling, shunning, etc. People who say racist, homophobic, and other hurtful things deserve to be called out if they refuse to acknowledge fault. Who needs them? I'm 65 and have, through social media, found new friends that previously I didn't care for (like in high school) and also blocked (cancelled) those whom I find have become toxic in adulthood. Nobody needs toxic people in their lives; stepping away l from them is not bullying, even if it's by a group.
6
It seems like a ruthlessly efficient way of solving a problematic relationship which is utterly dependent on a) creating false dichotomies and b) ignoring the realities of real life to justify a cancellation. Perfect for a generation raised to expect instant everything.
11
I don’t get it. This sounds exactly like high school without social media in the 80s and 90s also. Ostracism is ancient and a lemming activity of the insecure and inauthentic.
15
In the first example, it seems like a healthy choice. It’s good to learn to how to draw interpersonal boundaries, and we don’t have to be friendly with people who are being anti-social jerks. Girls in particular are expected to be “nice” to everyone with the result that they feel guilty for setting good boundaries.
The other examples seem more like social ostracism of the Puritanical sort-which seem kind of disturbing. Partly because we always need a way back into society- or what’s the point of it? Partly because It’s likely those kids will look for other like-minded kids to justify their behavior which turns into dark little hate corners on the Internet (or in real life) like 8Chan.
So yay for choosing to cancel a hurtful person on an individual basis, but maybe avoid the Groupthink McCarthy tactics?
13
What a wonderfully balanced and moderate response, Rachel from Denver! I agree with you entirely ... and I’m betting there are millions of others who do, too, even if we are more likely to hear from those with more polarized views.
2
I think in USA, schools should have uniforms and mobile phones shouldn't be allowed like in asian countries. Kids should not have to worry about how other kids are going to perceive them because of what they wear. Social media is fairly new, and we are still living in the high of this technology. But evidence is showing up that this thing is simply horrible. Students in asian countries would be kicked out if they brought phones or juul in schools. Discipline should be taught in school, because kids often take disadvantage of excessive freedom. But I know in USA that won't ever happen.
10
The examples imply that cancel culture is not, as a lot of commenters seem to think, just old-fashioned teenage bullying or cliquishness writ large. The "cancelled" described here are people deliberately parading music or language with patently-offensive politically-charged slurs. I can understand why people would eventually give up on those who unrepentantly flaunt such behavior when called out on it. But such "cancelling" would be no more than bullying-back if the offense isn't intentional, repeated, or defiant. Obama is correct--self-righteousness accomplishes nothing but reinforcing what one opposes.
8
I see this term in relation to celebrities all the time. I believe Ellen DeGeneres and Scarlett Johannson were recently cancelled due to things they have said or done.
1
Apparently one of the students interviewed found the statement about battling heteronormativity and cisnormativity “unnerving” so I’d like to clarify- trying to dismantle outdated concepts does not mean battling against straight people or cisgender people themselves.
There’s nothing wrong with being straight, and we aren’t saying that there is- when we talk about fighting heteronormativity, we’re talking about recognizing and validating the existence of marginalized lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-straight, people who are seen as “unnatural” and “other” while being straight is seen as the norm and natural.
We’re talking about heterosexuality being seen as the default; school forms that list “mother” and “father” because same-gender parents and non-binary parents aren’t recognized, those little moments that occur when a lesbian mentions her partner and someone assumes they must be a man, etc.
And trans students explaining how misgendering hurts us doesn’t mean we’re “canceling” you for occasionally messing up. Like many trans students, I’m often misgendered. I understand that it’s usually thoughtless and not an intentional action meant to hurt me so I just correct people and move on. Nobody “cancels” you- we just have the ability to choose to hang out with the people respect us.
Respecting the existence of marginalized people isn’t taking anything away from you. We all benefit when diversity is celebrated instead of erased, linguistically or otherwise.
-An SLC student
9
While this short format doesn't allow me to answer the myriad assertions in your comment, have no doubt that most of your demands are questionable and debatable, which is precisely what is not permitted by the inceasing thuggery unleashed under the rubric of Transgenderism. All of us have the right to demand we be allowed to live our own lives in privacy as we see fit and freely associate with those who we want to. Serious issues arise when these demands infringe on the rights of others, and compliance is demanded in the form of thought control brutally imposed through censorship and digital lynch mobs. You are free to request I use a personal pronoun that doesn't match your sex, and I am free to decide whether I agree. If I choose not to, you don't have the right to compel me under threat of legal, social, employment consequences. You certainly don't have to associate with me. You can't demand I "validate" you and your opinions, any more than I can demand you agree with me. You can't advance human freedom except through respect for freedom. Nothing "progressive" has ever been obtained through censorship and suppression.
5
This strikes me as a very Maoist idea, to be exiled in thought and remanded for "re-education." It also harkens to a prescient piece of fiction, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Corey Doctorow. The idea of social capital rising and falling really resonates here.
9
This entire phenomenon is as binary as the internet which spawned it. It attempts to simplify human behaviors and interactions until they are abstract, compact caricatures of themselves which adhere to a rigid, binary system of moral assessment: a person is either racist or not racist, a person is either sexist or not sexist, and so on. It fails to recognise the messiness and complexities of people, the contradictions of human behaviour and thought, and the critical nature of individual contexts and experiences in the ways that the world is framed for people.
It is a false, deceptive moral framework through which to view the world - but a seductive one. It lets people, particularly young people, wield life-destroying power as judges and executioners, and that rush of authority is intoxicating. It allows people to retroactively refit recorded speech and thought as moral transgression and crime, with no consideration for time, place, context, or personal experience. It is eroding our ability to understand and relate to one another, and it is teaching an entire generation of kids that binary moral absolutism is the only truth one needs concern one's self with. This is a dangerous socio-cultural and ideological space that big tech companies have led us into, and it will continue to fracture and cripple communities, with a huge social and human cost.
And anyone who claims that it 'doesn't exist' is deluding themselves.
29
@Captain Midnight , well put and chilling.
2
Growing up I lived in a very black and white thinking. I am sure I burned bridges or loss the opportunity to make relationships by bring judgmental. It is a part of growing up, trying to find your voice. But now with social media the whole world can see. Be careful and be kind.
8
A few weeks ago, I watched an SNL episode from the '70s on youtube. As one skit followed another, I realized this episode could never be produced today. The show had what today would be called sexism, homophobia, privilege, cultural appropriation, transphobia, xenophobia, and so on. And the folks who made this episode were liberals! (I don't believe these labels apply to the show, just that it would currently be judged along those lines.)
It brought home that today's dogmatic hypersensitivity is neurotic. Using its own terms, it can even be considered a symptom of privilege.
Comedy -- and art generally -- is supposed to have some edge.
President Obama's comments are a refreshing hint that dropping the puritanical self-righteousness could be the next step in liberal relations.
11
I can see your point, a little bit -- but I am sorry, I don't see "dogmatic hypersensitivity [which] is neurotic,* as you wrote. Think about the higher rates of violence -- among so many, many other disparities -- amongst the LGBTQ community, think about why gay people choose to (sometimes) remain closeted. Yes, art is supposed to have some edge -- but in ways that make us think, not in ways that cross unhealthy boundaries. I am a white heterosexual female and this level of understanding is really easy to get a handle on (no offense).
@Truth Hurts
Oh, I understand. I just don't agree.
Artists aren't social workers.
Who gets to decide what's a healthy boundary?
You?
I think a right-winger would argue you are on the unhealthy side. Remember how Nazis labelled modern art "degenerate art"?
Should Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King not have written because they might inspire someone to commit a murder?
Or is anyone inspired to hate by art responsible for their own choices and actions?
Censorship is wrong -- and art approved by committee, or consensus, is bad.
2
If you take God out of the classroom and do not teach children moral lessons of right and wrong what do you think the end result will be . Human beings must have a set of standards to live by and to interact with each other with . If human beings are taught nothing they will grow up into a society that thinks it can say and do and act out anything it wants and then you have the chaos that you are seeing around you right now . People without a sense of right and wrong act out worse than animals because they simply don't know how to behave in society .
3
So this is "canceled culture". This article mostly depicted young people acting on this practice. Hopefully as they mature (because this does come across as a bit of an immature act) they will realize that they need to be able to handle people who do not have their exact point of view and find some way of managing relations with them despite the fact; it may be their spouse one day, their in-laws or their friends. They will realize that plenty of people will not share their point of view and if they somehow find that they need to break off relations with these people like they are doing in their youth, they may find themselves pretty isolated. They will learn they are going to have to pick and choose their "cancel" battles more carefully. There is an element of "Cancel Culture" that exists among many adults even among the educated “Hotep” types. I don't think it's quite as extreme. It may not be as permanent. It can be seen in the term "Bye Felicia" that is often used via social media. Originally the term came from the comedy movie "Friday". Basically, it means, you are dismissed. "Cancel" culture can be seen existing with adults who are just not very open minded around a specific topic or phenomenon. There are adults who "canceled" POTUS Barack Obama because they viewed him as openly admonishing young Black men during a few of his college graduation speeches.
2
I have one kid in college and one who will be. Fortunately they are science students and not insane. Still, my advice is to never say anything but platitudes to anyone you don't trust. Also, don't use social media. So far they've listened.
America has gone absolutely bonkers, in case you haven't noticed. I advise hunkering down in hopes the lights come on again. Open communication in these times is self-destructive.
17
It's what used to be called shunning. It's nothing new. These kids will be very embarrassed by it when they look back in a few years.
3
Sometimes, if you know you will never be heard or respected by someone, or repeatedly invalidated by them, it’s perfectly fine to cut someone off. It’s called learning to love yourself.
As far as politics, I don’t have a problem with Trumpers because of a difference of opinion per se, but because if they are supporting him, they are supporting HIS hatred, racism, misogyny, etc. These are fundamental and horrifying value and moral differences that are hard to bridge.
3
I find it unbelievable that this is a thing. If someone told me they were going to "cancel" me, I'd laugh in their face.
5
I believe a lot more folks want to make this into something bigger than it is. Y’all want to make this about politics but it’s not, it’s about the people we are surrounded by. Each and everyone of us have that right and most of the examples used here express that one doesn’t want to associate with someone who is 1) constantly racist 2) uses racists language without much thought 3) bullies people or 4) puts people down for who they are. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t hang out with those people. The only thing that has slightly changed is that it’s now being verbalized. You aren’t literally cancelling a person, but simply making a choice not to willingly hangout with someone.
As I read some of the comments I couldn’t help but to chuckle at how the fingers quickly fly to social media. Folks look around you, my guess you are more isolated in your own tunnel than just on social media. We have hundreds off television channels to watch whatever you want and same with other mediums. Being closed minded isn’t limited to what you follow on social media. If we so choose, we can live in an echo chamber. The other critique is about how will they act in the work place. Well, they are going to do their job, that’s what they get paid for. People just deal with it, the same way they have been doing it since the development of modern work. You leave your personal stuff at the door and we have regulations in place to help ensure safe workplace for all.
3
this phenom also happens among adults in social media. For example, I have been blocked by on twitter by 2 different right-wing pundits, and on reddit by r/the Donald. I am always polite, I never ever use foul language, and I do not make personal attacks. I do not insult anyone's religion and I try not to make broad generalizations about a class of people. It seems that I am blocked because I have a different (and perhaps valid) opinion. Rather than have a discussion, I am cancelled. I suppose it is more pleasant to have people just agree with you. It is a terrible phenomenon, and results to make us more divided as a society.
2
I think we used to call it ignoring someone or something but I guess cancel sounds cooler.
3
As the adults in the room, we own the lion's share of responsibility here. We have lost our sense of humanity, compassion, empathy and especially our sense of decency. We no longer reach out and help each other, we reach out only to pummel each other. And our President and his lemming-like followers, are all right there showing young people it's OK to lie, berate, attack and bullying anyone you don't like - rather than do the good work to find the middle ground - why should our youth listen to our advice? Once again, actions speak louder than words.
2
You guys are exaggerating the negative consequences and minimizing the positive consequences, especially for people whose gender identity fits outside the binary or isn’t understood by boomers. Obviously cancel culture can be taken too far. If you eat enough carrots, your skin turns orange, but that doesn’t mean carrots (or cancel culture) are bad.
No one has to put up with Neo-Nazis etc. in their private lives. But in public places of learning, nonviolent debate about issues has to be promoted within broad reason. What's happened now is that there is, to some extent, a political orthodoxy on many campuses. There always has been and unfortunately always probably will be one that varies from place-to-place and from time-to-time, but the contradiction between the stated purposes of many of those colleges and what's happening can sometimes be painful. At other times, it's the conservative professors and students that need to take stock of themselves. Sometimes, it's us baby boomers who have to recognize that we're overreacting just as our parents' did.
1
Some thoughts:
The notion that people can't and won't change is a terrible falsehood with tragic implications. There's evidence to the contrary everywhere.
Cancel culture seems to be a new term for self righteousness. People in the right punishing people who don't already have it all figured out.
A world without forgiveness can't resolve any matter except through violence, be it actual warfare or softer forms like cancel culture.
I feel sorry for both but more for the cancellers. Their sense of self righteousness is harder to overcome than other forms of bigotry.
13
Cancel culture isn’t woke. It is selfish and condescending. What’s the point of being woke if you would only treat is like a crown of glory?
It negates the paint of being woke. The band, The 1975 pointed it out in their song “Sincerity is Scarity” that “instead of calling me out you should be pulling me in” Thus, the cliche notion of “stay woke but stay kind.” And, it also ignores the premise of reformative justice.
Educating others is an imperative in these crucial times when the truth is distorted, however, kindness as also essential.
9
The spirit of "cancel culture" is as old as the Salem Witch Trials.
True there is no burning at the stake, just shunning and "burning" someone on social media.
It's a primitive and brutal tribal custom that silences dissent and eliminates diversity of opinion. The act itself has nothing to do with "wokeness", but in fact is the opposite.
50
Nearly all cultures through time have practiced shunning, socially ostracizing an individual for a real or perceived error of belief or action, and cancel culture is merely the latest variant. The primary difference between cancel culture and traditional practices of shunning is the anonymity provided by online actions taken to ostracize individuals. Modern society becomes more and more Kafkaesque, individuals tried and found guilty without ever learning the true identity of their accusers.
20
Shunning as a form of punishment has been around since the earliest human societies. More recently it calls up images of the puritans more than the internet.
Humans find their way away and back to social norms that while different in form are similar in essence. Disrespect, indifference to suffering, cruelty are all behaviors that over time will be turned out from the herd. They are maladaptive and destructive. Humanity’s tremulous self righting features don’t work quickly but over time, do seem to work.
4
I wouldn't worry about this too much, when they leave school and enter the workplace and it impacts their compensation or job security, that will be the real acid test of how attached they are to these purity tests. I would speculate that it becomes situational at that point and it only gets invoked when sticking to their principles doesn't impact their wallet.
9
Fancy new term. Same old teenage and human behavior. Why don’t we start address the root problems and evolve culturally rather than relabeling with new ‘hip’ terms with each successive generation?
15
Is this the same as being shunned or blackballed? Sounds the same. Of course, with social media, the impact is widespread, lasting, and devastating.
16
Is this the same as being shunned or blackballed? Sounds the same. Of course, with social media, the impact is widespread, lasting, and devastating.
3
This article somewhat misrepresents and misunderstands the concept of 'cancel culture'.
Except in jest, one person can't 'cancel' another unless the first person has the power to do so, which few of us possess.
On the internet, only a more powerful celebrity, or a sufficiently large and powerful group, has the power to 'cancel' another celebrity.
Traditionally, of course, an appearance cancellation was made by management, by an agent, or by the person or group (or their manager), booked to appear live before the audience.
individuals might also cancel their subscription to a newspaper, journal etc, or their future premiums paid into an insurance plan.
Cancel culture extends the long-established concept of cancelling the appearance of a performer, band or troupe at a show, musical, concert etc, and adds in the ability of the individual to cancel their subscription etc.
On the internet, the result is the effective diminution or cancelling of the prestige or influence of a celebrity, one of the so-called influencers of social media.
3
I think one has to take responsibility for his or her beliefs. You become what you think. And thought turns to action. So if we are opposed, doesn’t it make sense to move on?
We choose our friends because of commonly held convictions and shared values. I have always preached “Keep the good people in your life.” The others aren’t worth the trouble. Hasn’t it been like this forever?
5
In nearly all of these stories, the person getting "cancelled" ignore all previous attempts to civilly discuss and change their behavior; in some cases directly saying "I understand this is hurtful, but I won't stop."
If these kids choose to ignore all the consequences of their actions, then people around them are left with no other option than to ignore them. The "cancelation" was never the first option.
6
When I was growing up (80s-90s) it was normal for people to be made fun of based on sexual orientation, weight, appearance; anything that made someone “different.”
Today, kindness, acceptance, and respect for diversity are more valued, and that’s great.
However, cancel culture is just today’s manifestation of yesterday’s bullying. Social norms change but human nature does much more slowly. People still form in-groups and out-groups, incite division, angle for status and dominance, and hurt others.
19
How does this work in the work place? I doubt bosses care about any of these issues when they expect 8-9 hours of production.
5
"Cancel Culture." Just a new name for what teens have been doing to each other for eons. The only difference is the format; instead of passing nasty notes and using the landline under the bed covers- they do it online.
12
This actually sounds, in the extreme, like shunning, which is a powerful weapon. There a difference between disagreeing with someone, or simply not liking them, and announcing to the world that they are social rejects. It has always happened to some degree, but it sounds as if it could be very hard, very damaging, to some young people. Mean girls to the nth degree.
13
As is often the case with we humans, it’s a power play. Nothing more, nothing less. Insecurities drive so many of our behaviors. We need to nurture a kind heart in children and remind ourselves as adults.
11
This is both scary and frightening.
Having graduated high school 40 some odd years ago it was one thing to be shunned by a group of students, you still had your circle of friends. But in today’s age and with the advent of social media, it’s prevalence and its interconnectivity this is far more a serious concern, especially since what’s put on the Internet, stays on the Internet.
The “canceling” phenomenon isn’t really comparable to the shunning of friends. It’s more along the lines in terms of impact of being deemed excommunicado or “not of the body” and has his dire consequences.
Lisa raised an interesting point, “When I was that age there were simply not so many opportunities to misstep and offend someone. On the rare occasion you got mad at a friend it was over quickly and there wasn’t a digital record of your life from birth waiting to destroy you as soon as the tide turns.”
So does Jon from DC, “If you go far left enough you’re no longer liberal. These kids have become just as intolerant as any classic, far-right conservative - they just hold a different set of beliefs as sacrosanct.”
The “Cancel Culture” is far more poisonous than anything that has come before it (short of living in a small village) because now the village is global and will follow you wherever you go. It’s also here to stay, because it’s far more easy to close ranks rather than accept that people have different opinions and you may not be right.
This is being insular, it’s being insulated.
22
Really?!
There was The IN-GROUP when I was a beginning teen in middle school.
Want to know why I didn't fit in? Because I spent an hour every morning in the library reading and doing homework. Why? Because I was 'gifted' and didn't attend regular classes; I attended art classes the majority of every day. I was expected to learn and know all the education everyone else had through the school day and by only picking up what my homework assignment and pages were during the last 5 minutes of every class.
I have no idea why any educator thought this would be a great idea. It interrupted my art 10 minutes out of every hour. But oh hey! I learned more about life and all of the other school day curriculum than any of my counter parts.
At the time though (aged 13), I could not figure out why no one liked me. By 17 I no longer cared. What happened? I realized I was different and difference is change. When everyone is a clone it is a beehive making honey for those who survived the trial.
There are far more people who need a leader than there are leaders who will simply continue going on, followers or not.
4
I'm still adamant that no person under the age of 18 should be permitted to have access to television or so-called "social media" on the Internet. Neither utility has done anything positive for our society.
9
We, as a country, need to reinstitute gender neutral draft without any exceptions and make both sexes serve as the frontline troops. It will help the social fabric of our country.
6
Most of these stories communicated a person engaging in behavior others don't like and a refusal to change that behavior or sincerely apologize. I have a hard time understanding why people would want to stay friends with someone like that. And this is also nothing new. Shunning like this definitely occurred when I was in high school 20+ years ago.
6
Sometimes people go too far and you can’t put up with it anymore. I’ve canceled a few people over the years. always with relief.
1
Sounds like "cancel" is a metaphor. Metaphors get used in different ways by different people in different situations. Young folks use "cancel" to represent both real, warranted self-protection (cutting someone "toxic" out of your life) and to justify petty cruelty. That doesn't mean there's some grand new trend going on that can be captured by this one word. It just means there's a word going around that stands for many things.
3
I seem to recall once being young. It was a long, long time ago in a land far, far away.
Still, I have no memory of a youthful "battle" for or against "heteronormativity and cisgender language." I guess the bridge-playing got in the way. I am reasonably well educated but I haven't the slightest clue about what those words even mean.
Well, who's canceled now? I remember that prehistoric song by -- who was it? -- oh yeah, Connie Francis, Richard M. Nixon's uncanceled soulmate of political campaignslong gone.
Welcome to 1958, everybody! Nothing much going on in those days.
4
Cancel culture in too many instance is a euphemism for bullying and simply retreating form attempting to arrive at a reciprocal, mature agreement about some taboo issue. Social media adds a contemporary twist as many can passively participate or obtain some vicarious warped pleasure. Too often direct, honest discourse is not an option - would that most adolescents and young adults opt to cancel "Cancel Culture."
9
reminds me of what I used to teach students about customer service
'what should you say when a customer complains to you ?'
(blank looks)
'Thank You ! for bringing that to my attention - now I have an opportunity to fix it'
I've read something like 9 out of 10 unhappy customers don't complain - they will just walk out, not say anything to the business, and then tell several friends, who will also avoid going there in future.
The business hears nothing from them and can be left wondering why they are getting fewer and fewer customers.
So the 1 in 10 unhappy customers who actually asks to speak to the manager and tells them about the problem deserves to be thanked.
They have taken a physical risk (no-one wants the chef coming out of the kitchen with a cleaver and chasing you down the street). It can be scary to speak up and risk angering the owner of a business if you're just one person surrounded by their employees.
I've also read that a complaint well solved tends to turn unhappy customers into evangelists who will then preach about the special service they felt they got, and will recommend it at all opportunities, causing people to drive across town to buy from this business that got rave reviews from their friend.
So to complain can feel risky - but if you don't ask, you may not get what you want.
3
I was "cancelled" by a close friend and neighbor with absolutely no explanation of what I had said or done to offend her. I've since realized this is why she and her husband had very few long-lasting friendships.
Real relationships sometimes hurt. Misunderstandings happen. Communicate, don't cancel.
17
I finished High School roughly 20 years ago. Maybe this dates me a bit. You could be 'cast out' then if you did something egregious. I just don't see how this is different.
4
It’s the mobbing and shaming aspect that seems different, I think. It can turn into bullying that kids can feel self-righteous about, and it gives a lot of power to those who get to decide whether someone has redeemed themselves sufficiently to be let back in and treated humanely. Some kids can roll with it and move on, but others are more fragile and the sense of isolation can be devastating. Accepting people’s imperfections and forgiving people for bad moments is what seems to be vanishing.
4
Maybe people should be teaching kids to respectfully disagree with one another and create dialogues, instead of isolating others that don't align with their specific beliefs.
Beyond education, high school is a time when your social skills are being shaped. Any trend that celebrates exclusion seems to be contributing to a generation of teens already self-conscious from relentless clique culture created social media oversaturation and a divisive political atmosphere.
10
I probably was ‘canceled’ by some of my high school cohorts in the 70s. Didn’t matter then and it certainly doesn’t matter now. Wish I can convince the youth of today that high school is fleeting and pretty much inconsequential.
5
"You're cancelled," sends a clear message about what is a line too far in acceptable social behavior. What is the alternative? Quietly icing someone out, not returning phone calls, and avoiding hanging out with them? The result (being left out) would be the same, but without the message. Everyone makes mistakes, and can be redeemed. Canceling isn't the equivalent to a Clan of the Cave Bear style shunning. You will survive. If you can also adapt, apologize genuinely and broaden your thinking... win win.
4
Not new. Shunning did not need social media, only a kid with a vendetta and a persuasive story. I wait for the article that addresses the matter, rather than assigning a new term to the latest generation to perpetuate this potential corruption inherent to adolescent development that raises its ugly head later through immature adult behavior, i.e. BK at confirmation hearing. Cancelling, or shunning represents a failure of the social frame to hold, and commonly illustrates the breakdown of inter-generational communication. Empathic breaches and failure become endemic. When children and adolescents can speak in an honest and confidential way with friends, family and caring adults, matters like shunning, now called cancelling happen less in a malicious manner. While some adolescent relationships need to stop, or deserve to fail, the outcome does not have to result in social exile and damage to a developing individual and social self.
1
As a moderate, I cancelled myself long ago. I don't talk about politics with anyone. I offend the extremists of both the right and the left simply by existing. But I do vote.
175
Thanks!
@Concerned Citizen
But apparently not of gross incompetence, corruption, crassness and racism
1
@Concerned Citizen. This is NOT how Trump got elected.
1
I really believe that “Cancel culture” is an unintended consequence of social media. Nothing is ever forgotten and every statement is combed through relentlessly to search for even the tiniest hint of “being problematic.” No one is perfect, and everyone does and says things they come to regret later in life. Cancelling someone judges whether someone is a good person or not often based off of a single event and that seems profoundly unfair. People lose their ability for redemption in a way.
Also, I want to point out that James Charles was ultimately somewhat vindicated and really didn’t deserve the treatment he received. Nowadays, people are very quick to believe the first pieces of info they receive online and to make up their minds before all the facts are in. And that’s a big problem in a complex world.
45
It strikes me that the only thing wrong with "canceling" someone is the finality of it. This disrespects the offender's capacity to learn, change, evolve, "get woke". Why not speak instead of "suspending" someone or "putting them on probation"? This conveys the message of principled disapproval, without a commitment to permanent hostility.
34
@Steve Hiltz
Why not? For one thing, you're attempting to deprive another individual of simply disagreeing with you. They must agree to see things your way (or pretend they do), or they're banished. How long before such outliers are issued a writ to get outta town? The whole thing's awful, just awful. And it's spreading.
1
OK, the internet and "social media" are terrible.
27
I am a white male, aged 68, and a retired mediator. I admit I know almost nothing about most social media, which abounds with nomenclature I don't understand, or current youth culture. Self-canceling disclosures aside, though, from what little I do know about human behavior and group functioning (or lack thereof), "canceling" sounds a lot like the ancient practice of ostracizing people from the tribe? Primitive as life was in those times, they were not complete idiots (e.g., dozens of Greek philosopher that I will not bother to list). Ostracization was an extraordinary punishment: rarely done, only in the most exceptional circumstances. Across all cultures (not just Western), people innately understood the enormity of punishment - humankind being a primate and such a completely social animal. Thus, I am hard pressed to understand how "cancel" culture gets us anywhere - as a country or civilization? Today's "canceler" is tomorrow's "cancelee." By all means, disagree - even vehemently - with people who have offended you or violated widely accepted norms. But, to "cancel" them is more a symptom of a larger social disorder rather than a cure for it?
273
@Mainlandhaole
Completely agree. You are absolutely correct. Very well said. The cancel culture is those that refuse to acknowledge any differing opinions. They dont even want them spoken. They show up at events in public spaces and college campuses where speakers are voicing something they dont agree with and dont want to hear. So rather than engage in civil, rational dialogue, they shout them down until the speaker has no choice but to depart from the stage, unheard.
17
“Canceling” sounds remarkably like “shunning.” I was shunned by my peer group in 1977, as a middle school student, when another girl in the group decided I was encroaching on her boyfriend, who sat next to me in a class. This girl had the power to turn everyone against me overnight—and a year went by before I learned why I was ignored by virtually everyone. This girl’s perception was merely that, and several years later she attempted to re-engage. By then I had moved on. Canceling, shunning, teaching someone a lesson; it doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s just another form of bullying.
33
This kids are going to have trouble in the work place..
128
I have but one observation: ugh, teenage girls are horrible.
(I was one once, so can attest first-hand to the accuracy of this.)
48
I was also a teen-aged girl once and I agree, they are fairly horrible. I still cringe at some of the hurt that was inflicted on me - and at the hurt I inflicted on others.
1
It's called "shunning," and it's been around for centuries. Nothing new here.
141
Calling it "Cancelling" is neology gone amuck. It is nothing more than old-fashioned Political Correctness, repackaged for the Texting generation.
24
@Connecticut Yankee
The term “Political Correctness” is hardly old fashioned. Perhaps, sanctimony?
1
At least it doesn't involve throwing stones...
18
Yet.
2
"Cancel culture" has long been a practice of insular groups and cults that are unable to tolerate individuals who refuse to adhere to group norms. The Amish call it "shunning", ultra-orthodox Jews "sit shiva" and Scientologists "disconnect".
What's ironic, of course, is that the current cohort of shunners acts not in defense of centuries-old values, but from the belief that they are the most progressive and "woke" members of society.
64
@Joel I'm neither Jewish, nor Amish, nor Scientologist, so perhaps I'm missing something, but how is sitting shiva--which I understand is an act of mourning that brings community together--analogous to shunning or to disconnecting, which are acts that cut people out of a community?
1
@Joel
Orthodox Jews sit shiva for living people (rarely, I'll add) to declare them "dead to me." Highly effective as a threat aimed against a daughter who's contemplating intermarriage. Sitting shiva is a standard part of the Jewish mourning ritual.
“Sitting shiva” is not a form of ostracism. It is what Jews do when a loved one dies. And one purpose is to remember the deceased.
Does no one in life deserve a second chance anymore? How can anyone grow or change or mature if never given the opportunity? Is this just "judgementalism" and a state of being intolerant that is out of control? Everyone does stupid things at some point and should have a chance to make things right.
62
I remember reading a story (May be here at NYT). After some run in with a guy, she had mobilized the whole music community to shun that guy. Few months/years later, the same community shunned her for something she did/said. Then she wondered why she doesn’t get a second chance and how unfair it is. I can’t remember if she came around and realized her error in getting that guy shunned and denying him a second chance in the first place.
35
@KPS They aren't being abandoned on an asteroid. These kids stop being friends with kids they stop liking. It has always happened and always will.
Actually there are a few things that do not merit a second chance: pedophilia, sexual assaulters and murder come to mind. If you commit those acts, cancel culture will be a walk in the park compared to the rest of your life. That’s why I have zero interest in listening to the music of R Kelly or Michael Jackson.
2
Hard to believe Obama could be criticized for this but there you go.
11
Cancelling can become a form of bullying and abuse by itself. It depends on why a person is “ cancelled “!
15
@SRei
It also depends on whether the "cancelled" person cares; after all being cancelled may also mean having some peace and quiet, or some time to yourself.
All this talk of "cancel culture" and "social justice warriors" is really just new packaging for an age-old idea: MANNERS. If you want to be racist, be sexist, be hateful, that's your prerogative, but it's also bad manners, and we don't have to tolerate people with bad manners.
Does it go too far sometimes? Sure. But seeing as how the history of humanity is the history of aggression, of aggressive language, hate, misogyny and racism, I think it's okay if we err on the side of being too purportedly sensitive for a while.
20
So cancelling is just the new term for ignoring.
16
Being canceled seems like being liberated from oppressive group conformity.
30
This kind of 'canceling' just seems to codify what's been going on forever with teenagers. The issue is the amplification via social media, the lasting impact of some dumb post, and the rules of 'woke' culture. I consider myself a progressive, but the purity tests on the left irritate me as much as those on the right.
26
Conservative religious groups have long practised this. It’s called “shunning”.
28
In the quest to be tolerant,
Everyone has gotten way too intolerant.
82
My advice is to accept 'cancellation' and remember the old maxim that "the best revenge is to live well". Later in life you can even gloat over the failures of those who canceled you, as long as you do it quietly.
16
"Cancel culture" is a politically correct term for bullying. Instead of using compassion to teach others about the harmful effects o racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., the "cancel culture" promotes ostracizing people and is in itself new culture of intolerance.
74
Nothing new here. People have been doing that to each other for time immemorial. They’ve just decided to call it something different and pretend they invented it.
7
Cancel culture. It's as old as time and it's "tyranny of the majority." Every generation has to discover it and come up with a buzzword for it.
5
The good news is that most folks reach peak fatuousness about 16-17 years and then progressively get better as the tenets of emotional intelligence sink in - the bad news is that is peak social network time as well.
8
Political correctness cannot excuse what is plain and simple bullying. It’s one thing for an individual to “cancel” another person but when that cancellation becomes groupthink, it’s bullying. Just because cancelling empowers a person or group previously treated with disrespect does not make the behavior correct.
24
I was attended high school in the mid 90s. My somewhat outcast group decided that the label of hypocrite was the absolute worst thing one could be called. For about a year or so different factions formed labeling friends who had once got along with the epithet. We all feared being so labeled and had entered our own version of The Terror. It eventually ran it's course, and looking back it is hard not to to be embarrassed by the pretense. Such is life- such is youth.
9
Seems to me, cancel culture is the ultimate bullying.
Crowd sourced with no right of appeal and no redemption.
Who among us is so perfect they couldn’t be subject to this treatment?
19
This isn't just a teenage phenomenon. I've see groups of adults do the same thing - being intolerant of any sort of difference of opinion or attitude, and going out of their way to humiliate and shun the supposed offender, when honest and kind conversation would be more helpful and conciliatory, albeit more difficult, because it means that everyone involved has to admit to being wrong sometimes, which some people are practically incapable of doing (e.g., our current president). It's a kind of animalistic group behavior, because you see other types of non-human animals with strict societal hierarchies engaging in similar punishing behavior toward those perceived to be transgressors. It also involves a subtle power grab for the group leaders, as well, who get to assert themselves and their opinions, while dismissing others' ideas as less valuable. And it happens among people of all political stripes, from the right to the center to the left.
24
In 1967 I was refused service at a diner somewhere outside of Amarillo, Texas. It didn't occur to me, an east coast city girl, what was happening. I sat there for over 30 minutes watching people order, eat, and leave. Finally I find out I was on the receiving end on cancel culture!!
10
So much for forgiveness and the chance for redemption. Perhaps such quaint old concepts should be “canceled” along with the golden rule.
8
This has been an age old problem, where kids are isolated by other kids, new name for an older issue, however the challenge this generation and later generations to come, is whatever what done in high school will always remain in existence in social media. 20 years from now, the incidents will not be forgotten, forgiven and moved on.
7
As a high school English teacher, I believe cancel culture promotes Puritanical standards of purity, and intolerance to those who don’t meet whatever some moody adolescent decides the standard is (and who the teen may want to hurt or exclude or feel superior to.) Cancel culture contracts the social space teens need to make mistakes, experiment, and exercise terrible judgment (i.e. developmentally normal teen pastimes). Cancellation inhibits kids from learning compassion and kindness; tolerance of those who are different, and constructive ways of resolving conflicts. As the article says, ostracizing (canceling) kids can cause grievous, lasting damage to those who are left out. Horrendous! As President Obama said the other day, being “politically woke” can prevent people who have significant differences from working together towards common goals. Horrendous!
69
The 21st Century version of ostracism. Human nature doesn't change, just the technology.
5
The 21st Century version of ostracism. Human nature doesn't change, just the technology.
3
All this makes me wonder, has anything good come out of social media? Anything?
Lies, fake news, misinformation campaigns, bullying, loss of privacy, data theft, isolation from the real world, depression, amplification of echo-chambers, loss of sleep quality, celebrity culture, etc. And now cancel culture.
Why are people still on these platforms?
20
I’ve learned how to repair sewing machines and paint/refinish furniture partly through Facebook interest groups. Otherwise -meh.
2
There's nothing new about this. It used to be called shunning.
6
Teens have always been cruel. Unfortunately, technology has now supercharged both the level of cruelty and its terrible effects.
17
These kids will all get a reality check when they get into the real world. They live on social media, which is the most unsocial land.
6
I would recommend that these cancel culture warriors read "The Scarlet Letter"
28
Cancelling a "friend" who uses racist and homophobic slurs is far healthier than justifying their behavior. Whether it was intentional or not, the last vignette was pretty clear that "D" deserved to get cancelled, even though he didn't understand why.
8
@Kathleen Warnock
So, you don't believe in persuasion and debate? Perhaps it would be even healthier to change someone's mind and behavior. I see cancelation as the ultimate closing of minds, both the canceled and the canceler.
2
Seems like kids mostly being very self-righteous and suddenly deciding a certain behavior can no longer be tolerated. And rather than distancing oneself as an individual instead piling on and doing it as a group to feel powerful about it. In other words, typical teen behavior and totally black and white thinking.
15
I really hope those of us in the center-left can destroy this authoritarian cancer on the far left. These attitudes make beating Trump in 2020 all the more difficult. Notwithstanding the fact that these ideas are intensely illiberal.
48
Cancelling? Sounds a lot like garden-variety bullying to me.
18
Turning away from offensive behavior is ok; turning away from a person who then becomes isolated is not. Isolation cancels community.
My first Air Force roommate routinely directed racial epithets toward our neighbors. We didn't reject the person, but we did reject the behavior, which he did modify, modestly, over time. Then he was "cancelled". In other words, he was reassigned. But I got a call from Goose Bay wishing me well. That's because I cancelled the offense, not the offender. Grow community, or at least try. At the least, you get to be selfish and feel better about yourself.
22
“Cancelling”? That’s a thing? I have been doing this all my life. Time is valuable and fleeting. No need to waste it on people who are not “worth” your time.
7
I'm not at all sure I agree with this cancel culture stuff. However, I'm 74 and about a year ago "canceled" my friendship with a couple who have been friends for over 40 years. We spent a lot of time together over the years and had great fun but their support for Trump changed everything. Our conversations started turning into shouting matches and at that point I said "enough"! Somewhat sad but "cancelled" nonetheless. So it's not just young folks. I've heard racist stuff all my life and now I'm ready to cancel anyone who spouts it now.
18
@rodw : This is odd. How did you all devolve into having shouting matches about politics? What ever happened to agreeing to disagree? It seems you've had a very long-standing friendship, and surely there must've been other things to discuss.
I am also not a Trump supporter, but a friend from elementary school is. So is her husband. She's been my friend for almost 40 years. We sort of delicately let each other know where we stood after the election, both accurately guessing the other person's stance.
We don't talk politics. But our kids are the same age, and we talk about them and school and the challenges of being working moms with young kids. And cooking and vacations and catching up on our extended families. TV shows, homebuying, where to get good deals on things we need. Good-natured gossip about kids we went to school with. Reminiscing about our past exploits. Our challenges with our aging parents.
We don't see each other often. I moved away many years ago. But I see her roughly 3 times a year, and spend as much time with her on each of those trips as I can. We never run out of things to talk about. And I'm glad to have such a good old friend, even if the person she pulled the lever for is abhorrent.
3
@rodw
You are not alone in finding that you enjoyed the company of someone who at heart is a racist and misogynist. November 2016 showed us people's hearts. Anyone who supports Trump is tainted by his hate and fear. It is time for people to stand up for equality by causing those people to feel social consequences.
2
Wow, I don't think the kids are snowflakes - these commenters are. Shunning and public shaming are ancient, effective practices for dealing with bad behavior. What's described in this piece (insisting on the R Kelly song - in THAT class; racist slurs) is NOT 'a different opinion", it's bad behavior. Shunning is entirely appropriate.
7
So sorry, everyone. But... what does “‘battle heteronormativity and cisgender language,’” mean?
Graduated 50 years ago from high school and was always cancelled by the in crowd for being not what they thought they are. So many new words to keep track of these days!
12
Seems like this is what folks have called the “silent treatment” for generations. Also, it’s juvenile and emotionally abusive.
40
We seem to have gotten to a place where it is almost impossible to talk with each other over differences. Lest anyone think that this is just youth culture, I'm in my ninth decade and had it happen to me (in a very minor way): a former co-worker, when he found out that I had differences with him on our current president, he quit talking to me at all, won't respond to email messages. The difference, of course, is that at least he didn't tell others to quit talking with me.
20
@Planetary Occupant - your last sentence is key.
1
What worries me about this so called "cancel" culture is the ease with which a person can get cancelled. Where does the boundary of discomfort begin and end? Can a person be cancelled for wearing the wrong color, spelling a word wrong or not being pretty enough? Have we created or are we creating a generation that can't handle anything that might upset a delicate emotional equilibrium?
I can see a day when children are allowed to "divorce" their parents for not feeding their delusions of grandeur or narcissism. Or even a time when a child becomes a victim worthy of medical care and a prescription for having had to listen to another persons opinion.
Recently the Times published an article about millennials seizing power because of the failures of the elderly, those over 30, for which I agree, to an extent, but then you read this article and wonder which could be worse, Trump or president under 25?
What happens when you get a charismatic leader who shunned everything in life that had caused them discomfort? Another Trump perhaps.
8
The story about "D" is the exact same situation me and my friends were in if you replace "roomate" with "cycling group". "Cancelling" is just putting a name on something that people have been doing for years. I remember it as being "dead to me/us" or "cut off". Call it what you will it's never good to keep toxic people in your life. You are the company you keep.
9
Exactly. People call it cancelling now but it's not a new idea.
3
@Todd : But these people weren't being toxic to each other. Supporting Trump when your friends are liberal? Or accidentally (rather than deliberately and repeatedly and with ill-intent) using the wrong pronoun?
2
This is shunning and it's not new, it's frequently used by fundamentalist groups. It's a way to attempt to control others and denial this motive. It's very sad and will lead to nothing good. People need to learn non-violent communication- which is communiating ones own emotions and needs to the person who you are conflict with and give them the opportunity to understand your side, and as well to understand them better.
To be so sensitive that you can't handle interacting with anyone who thinks different than you is not good.
14
How is canceling different from ghosting or dropping?
5
Um... Isn’t this just people and groups liking who they like and disliking who they don’t like, with different terminology? Those of you who are scandalized by it, what are you proposing instead: everyone is required to be friends with everyone else regardless of whether they like each other? The main difference between the social dynamics described here and the social dynamics that exist and have existed everywhere forever is that now the people who are getting excluded are getting excluded for GOOD REASONS (like bigotry, disrespect, and support for racism) rather than bad ones (like not dressing the right way, or acting the right way...or, quite frankly, being a member of the same oppressed minorities who are being DEFENDED by this movement.
The only people decrying “cancel culture” are people who aren’t used to the idea that THEY might start being the targets, after a lifetime of assuming it’s always the other guy.
5
@Davvy Abrashkin But two wrongs don't make a right. I would also disagree that in all cases cancel culture is invariably on the side of "good" reason. The form of the cancellation--its implicit theology of permanent exclusion, its vastly of amplified scope, its volatility, its merciless and inflexible conviction in its own righteousness--reeks of totalitarianism and sounds a lot like the Calvinism, Puritan God. It its no accident there is affinity between The Scarlett Letter and this type of "justice." It is also telling that your comment admits these methods have been deployed, but without social media, by totalitarian ideologies. The weapon used for injustice can easily contaminate those who use it for justice, like the One Ring in LoTR, if you will. Most, if not all, of the atrocities that have occurred throughout history have been committed by zealots totally convinced in their own self-righteousness and the evil of the Other. It seems to me that deploying similar tactics as "the enemy" will perpetuate the evil. The form of the justice itself must change; cancellation culture has too many affinities with evil to be embraced without skepticism.
@Davvy Abrashkin - it goes further in that the cancellers make friendship with the cancelled a litmus test.
"The presenters discussed pronoun use and called on the entering freshmen to “‘battle heteronormativity and cisgender language,’” the student said.
Even if you accidentally misgendered someone, the new students were told, you needed to be either called out or called in. (“Called in” means to be gently led to understand your error; call-outs are more aggressive.)"
Big problems here. Young minds being forced to choose without exploring different opinions is bad for their futures, our country, being able to see the alternative view, and functioning in our world.
Academic professors need to be questioned at every single turn these days, as they continue to abdicate their priviledge and responsibilities of shaping the minds of the young.
9
The young people are being advised to be sensitive to others. I don’t understand the objection. And I don’t understand why people should have to listen to vulgar rap music they don’t want to hear. Some people get what they deserve.
1
@Zejee
Then students can be encouraged to be sensitive, not with the threat of being " called in." The problem is obvious and straightforward.
2
Being cancelled is more asked not to contribute when you are not at your best. The older you get the more people have a good idea of what you are capable of and being cancelled can simply give you a chance to find a new mark and be an opportunity to pursue your goals in another manner. Being cancelled immediately just walking into a situation for something you believe you are good at is very common. Most people don't really want to hear boasting right off the bat no matter how righteous. Being modest doesn't always allow you the opportunity to present why you shouldn't be cancelled in the first place. It's best to congratulate and support those in more need before your own self interests even if scheduled. Feeling for others with empathy often is reciprocated and progress is difficult but no one needs to be cancelled.
Being cancelled is more asked not to contribute when you are not at your best. The older you get the more people have a good idea of what you are capable of and being cancelled can simply give you a chance to find a new mark and be an opportunity to pursue your goals in another manner. Being cancelled immediately just walking into a situation for something you believe you are good at is very common. Most people don't really want to hear boasting right off the bat no matter how righteous. Being modest doesn't always allow you the opportunity to present why you shouldn't be cancelled in the first place. It's best to congratulate and support those in more need before your own self interests even if scheduled. Feeling for others with empathy often is reciprocated and progress is difficult but no one needs to be cancelled.
all these people love jumping on a younger generation for becoming less compromising as boomers exhibit this same attitude constantly and call it a virtue. How can you hold children to the standard of being open minded when they have no role models except those that would denigrate them as "lazy" and "snowflakes" for ever asking for help or bringing up serious issues like sexual assault, or "naive" for attempting to do big things.
This is gen Z straightforwardly reflecting the boomer culture that raised them, and refuses to engage with them on any equal terms on the basis that they are young, and thus, aren't allowed to speak.
2
It sounds awfully hard to be a kid now. When I was that age there were simply not so many opportunities to misstep and offend someone. On the rare occasion you got mad at a friend it was over quickly and there wasn't a digital record of your life from birth waiting to destroy you as soon as the tide turns.
I see why kids are stressed and depressed.
764
@Lisa When I was a kid, I had to walk 5 miles to get to school on a muddy road. We only got electricity and running water when I was 11 years. My generation was too busy surviving so maybe that's why we didn't have time to be stressed and depressed. Kids these days are overprotected by their 'helicopter' and 'bulldozer' parents and that is why they cannot cope.
29
@Lisa When I was in school (the 70's and early 80's) there was plenty of bullying and cliques. It wasn't any easier back in the day....
38
@Lisa Kids are stressed and depressed partly because they are living in a world of diminishing returns. They are aware their financial future is likely to be much worse than their parents'. Worse, they will soon be facing an existential threat and the grownups who could help prevent or alleviate it are still arguing whether climate change is real.
17
This is not new, especially among teenagers. People always make social judgments about other people.
What is new- particularly for young people, is the fact that the social network is now so all-encompassing and there are so many ways to "...cut..." somebody and so many people can join in, as happened in the case of the unfortunate Miss L in the piece.
5
Working in a high school, I can tell you first hand, that social media and children are like oil and vinegar-they simply don’t mix. Kids can do great things with technology, and do, but giving them access to social media, where they can freely say, and do, things that are not only unhinged and draw dropping, but often illegal.
I cannot tell you how many arguments and fights are brewing under the surface, and brought into the school, by unsuspecting adults.
Technology is a wonderful thing. It has saved lives. It has helped the handicapped a voice to participate in school and communicate with others. It offers the teachers tools to
make their lessons come alive. But, as this article correctly illustrates, it can be used as the ultimate humiliator, which can take an inappropriate behavior and catapult it into a morass of humiliation, for all of the world to see.
It is really difficult to get the genie back into the bottle.
38
This is pretty disconcerting from the standpoint that no deviation from group opinion is tolerated. Also, forgiveness doesn't seem to be considered. Maybe they need a "Time Out", rather than just a "Cancelled". Modern day shunning.
28
There are opinions that I won’t tolerate.
1
The difference between 30 years ago and now is the amplification of group-think, the catalyzing of poorly examined righteousness and the presence of a permanent record through the social media platforms. In Western culture--and in the U.S. in particular--individuality is a sacred archetypal, but we're seeing the dark side of this trope in both the selfish narcissism of the president and in the righteousness of individuals cancelling others without humility. If anger is pain transformed into protective action then D's situation says a lot. Instead of these students perceiving his "sadness and frustration" as signs of deeper issues that warranted their kind attention, they felt righteous in cancelling his potential to repair and evolve, dismissing his apology as insufficient. They would do well to remember that an apology is not a product rather than a process; it is rarely a fully formed product at its inception and its ultimate legitimacy is not something determined by the individual perception of the receiver but by larger collective forces at work.
29
Whatever.
Talk to the hand.
It’s wonderful to debate, dialogue, understand one another, and even agree to disagree.
Canceling limits opportunities for growth and understanding, and for being able to function in many adult situations.
You don’t always get to like coworkers and bosses, but many of us still need to work with them and be civil.
32
A teenager shouldn't be wasting her time and good years on tolerating hooligans who use ethnic slurs around them
4
Boomer cancel culture has had way more impact:
Cancel moving towards income equality,
Cancel the environment,
Cancel democracy.
15
One day these teenagers will learn that it takes too much energy to keep an ever-changing updated list in your brain of who’s canceled and who’s not. Think of life as a small military unit. You cannot decide who’s in and who’s out, and your life depends on constant good communications with each one of your mates. It’s simple and energy saver.
24
Why all the handwringing and angst. Things were the same 50 years ago. If you don’t like someone, don’t talk to or hang around them. People always seemed to find new friends or a group to fit into.
23
People grow up today in a culture that suppresses debate and dissent. High school and college students simply do not have the logical or rhetorical tools to discuss their differences with people they disagree with. Once it becomes acceptable to simply ignore those with different opinions, we are no longer a culture, just a bunch of competing tribes sharing real estate.
Of course, anyone following our adult politics realizes that we are already there.
56
As with others, unless I’m missing something, this sounds much like folks deciding they dislike someone and don’t want to spend time with them. I’m fairly confident this has happened for all mankind. Maybe I missing how “cancelling” is any different from this.
Kids have certainly grown more sensitive. Maybe they also react more strongly than those 30 may have in high school to those they dislike?
15
You're not missing anything. A bunch of obselete adults whining about teenagers who aren't interested in tolerating certain kinds of behavior. They'll live.
2
It's been about 20 years since I was in high school, but this sounds pretty much the same as it was back then.
770
@Justaguy Its been (a delightful) 40 years for me, and I couldn't have said it any better than you.
35
A delightful 50. I go back to my hometown now and some of the people who bullied me mercilessly act like I am their long lost friend. I have to be polite, it's a small town and I have relatives that still live there, but I really wonder what the.
42
I went to the same highschool Greece was filmed in, Taft high Chicago. Let's just say there are way more metal detectors and police on campus than there was back then. They even have these gates in the hallway to lock down the school when there's an active assailant in the hallways. Such good times!
14
Two questions:
1. How is canceling someone different from deciding you don’t like them?
2. Why would anyone expect everyone (a cafeteria full of students) to like them?
In the normal course of life, we are lucky to find a dozen real friends. Those are the only ones that matter. Not the 8734 online friends social media says you have.
Cancel them.
847
@John Almberg
True. I was “canceled” by the “in crowd” in high school many decades ago. The difference today is that being shunned has a far reaching public shaming impact on social media. Trump practices “canceling” most every day. Young people are parroting the adults around them.it will end when adults stop excusing this and stop practicing it.
93
I don’t know, but it looks to me to be far more severe — this seems to be is about encouraging others to ostracize another for a perceived social-moral infraction. Social are fluid and change. And with social media, the shaming travels faster and farther. Thoughts?
82
@John Almberg Deciding you don't like someone is different than 'cancelling' interaction with them. Let's say ...
A family member has ticked you off too many times. You decide you dislike them. But if they ask for for the gravy during Thanksgiving Dinner it's 1.) one thing to pass it to them without comment, and 2.) another thing altogether to pretend the words they spoke never crossed your ears.
It sounds similar to solitary confinement, which has been proven to be cruel in a pernicious and long-lasting manner.
60
Having just graduated from the University of Minnesota last year, a very liberal college, I believe these examples don't adequately show how far cancel culture has gone and what it truly is. The examples used of disassociating from obvious homophobes, or more classic bullying that teenage girls have always done to each other since the dawn of time is not new and not really cancel culture. The cancel culture that is truly new to my generation is the full blocking or shutting out of someone who simply has a different opinion than you. My experience in college was it morphed into a culture of fear for most. The fear of cancellation or punishment for voicing an opinion that the "group" disagreed with created a culture where most of us sat silent. My campus was not one of fruitful debate, but silent adherence to whatever the most "woke" person in the classroom decided was the correct thing to believe or think. This is not how things worked in the past, people used to be able to disagree, debate and sometimes feel offended because we are all looking to get closer to the truth on whatever topic it may be. Our problem with cancel culture is it snuffs out any debate, there is no longer room for dissent or nuance, the group can decide that your opinion isn't worth hearing and - poof you've been canceled into oblivion. Whatever it's worth I'd like to note I'm a liberal, voted for Obama and Hillary, those who participate in cancel culture aren't liberals to me, they've hijacked the name.
1925
@Cal Maybe people need to get a stronger backbone-- a stronger sense of self, where they can respectfully state their beliefs, and not let piling on intimidate them. The Constitution guarantees free speech, not freedom from consequences of speech. And sometimes free speech is obnoxious or offensive to others. Each person has to decide how willing they are to express themselves and accept the consequences. It an adult quandary, something that college students should be learning, along with the academics,
If you aren't on social media, it really, really helps.
70
@Cal thoughtful comment, however, i grew up in the late 60s-70s and what you described was going on then also. the technology of course is different today, and the issues different. we never had a name ("cancel") for it, but it existed.
45
@Cal So well said! Thank you!
43
If you go far left enough you're no longer liberal. These kids have become just as intolerant as any classic, far-right conservative - they just hold a different set of beliefs as sacrosanct.
1320
@Jon
Did you read the article? Other than the first one these have nothing to do with liberalism, just with kids ostracizing each other, as kids are want to do. The difference being that it extends to social media and therefore more targeted than ever before.
39
@Jon I disagree. As a member of the LGBT community, if someone I've been around many people for my 56 years on earth who use racists, misogynistic or homophobic slurs, I don't want to be around that person who belittles and bullies others because of their gender, sexuality or ethnicity. Cutting people who are toxic out of your life is called self protection. I've just never said out loud like these young people do, "I'm shunning you/cancelling you." (i.e. I'm not going to talk to you because you are a terrible person.')
42
@Kristina I don't agree. They are using identity politics to cancel people. There are better ways to address differences.
57
Cancel culture is an understandably bad situation. It's useful occasionally but most often seems to just reproduce failed power structures in miniature, instead of abolishing them, which should be the goal. Still, better that people have boundaries and enforce them than just getting by and putting up a façade of OK-ness.
5
I don't see anything new here. Teenagers and young adults have applied peer pressure for decades. The behavior described in this article sounds like a remake of the movie "Mean Girls".
What would be new is if peer pressure actually changed the world for the better. That is what this aging liberal is waiting to see.
162
@LGT525 While peer pressure is not new, social media has vastly amplified its scope and altered the shape it takes in daily life. It leaves a permanent record of persecutory shaming over a person's head.
"But this happened in the Scarlett Letter, didn't it? Weren't witches burned? What about the Inquisition, or Mao's cultural revolution, or McCarthyism?"
All of those examples do not preclude the possibility social media has altered the shape of the persecution and amplified its scope.
The "this isn't nothing new" fallacy is a usually an immediate red flag that reeks of ahistoricism and oversimplified conclusions based on easy universals.
10
@BP
"All of those examples do not preclude the possibility social media has altered the shape of the persecution and amplified its scope. "
In fact, current "cancellation" Is historically mild.
For one counterexample: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riding_a_rail
At a macro level, many societies have exploited creation of an outside group to improve their own group's cohesion. Both the American Left and Right are dueling in this way in this era, though they call it "exciting the base".
...Andrew
7
@BP I guess we could pull from a Bob Fosse musical, and say "Everything old is new again."
It sounds like ZERO TOLERANCE, a policy started long before these people were born. Now that it is reflected back it's a problem?
6
By coincidence recently reread (still brilliant and uncanny) Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Used to be required reading in high school, and ought to be again.
34
Teenagers were snotty when I was growing up 50 years ago. The only thing which has seemed to change is terminology.
Censuring someone for their POV is both disturbing to witness and extremely immature.
12
My husband says the new "woke," rigidly ideological left-wing culture reminds him of growing up under Communism, where people privately whispered their true opinions but didn't dare voice them in the public realm. Because, of course, the Party would "cancel" them.
He shakes his head as he sees our fellow 40 somethings speak in covert conversations about how they secretly feel the non-binary/gender-canceling/pronoun-policing culture has gone too far; how the hypersensitive excesses of #metoo have unfairly targeted some basically good people, and killed romance in the process; how the 'canceling' of dead white men from everything from history class to the literary canon to what used to be proud public-heritage holidays isn't maybe going to far in failing to consider the complexities and contradictions of human character.
And how we'd never, ever dare say any of this in public, or on social media.
Really, what good is diversity when everybody feels they have to parrot the same party line on issues of the day? And how are these woke cancellers 'liberal?'
389
@Jaclyn Exactly what you say. And like that, real discourse and understanding is denied.
16
@Jackyn
Dissidents went to prison in the USSR. This is not at all like that. Not in any way. Teenagers losing friends cannot be compared with Soviet adults being sent to labor camps.
I know a lot of ex-Soviet physicists and some of them I've canceled from my own life because their misogyny was just too much for me. The USSR was far from being liberal. Sexism, racism, homophobia -- these were all present and were all allowed to be expressed, as long as you didn't criticize the Party.
6
@Jaclyn
Might this be just a teensy exaggeration? Any statistics, or even anecdotes, on imprisonment, torture, death of those who have been "cancelled"?
I really doubt it, because this is about people choosing who to associate with and/or peacefully criticize in a free society, which is about as different from despotic communism as a handbag is from a horse.
If you don't like a particular behaviour, guess what? You have the same right to disagree peacefully, or not associate with those who have offended you.
4
Positively Orwellian.
I guess today’s kids like a diversity of skin color and sexual orientation but not political or social views.
Who knew the Amish practice of banishment would prove so popular with the woke crowd?
165
What about something called "Forgiveness?"
51
It is possible to see some good in a person even if that person has some opinions or views that one does not like.
35
Sounds like the shunning practices of various religious cults. Punishment for non conformity. And no doubt a form of piling on.
31
The students were in a class about Social Justice? Yikes. Hopefully their next class teaches them about Trickle Down Economics.
The theories are both equally as ridiculous.
22
And they did not want to hear the rap lyrics that the student insisted on playing despite objections. Bad behavior has consequences
1
Isn't almost everyone an emotional leech thirsty for validation?
16
Canceling sounds like the opposite of tolerance, which used to be what liberals were about.
I understand some people no longer wish to “tolerate” behavior they interpret as racist or homophobic, etc. but without talking and listening and some accepting, liberals become rigid reactionaries.
67
@Anglican Behavior that can be interpreted as racist or homophobic usually IS racist or homophobic. It's really not that subtle a thing. And I see no reason why anyone should accept such behavior without corrective comment.
1
@La Resistance The examples in the article illustrated that comments can, indeed, range from utterly innocent to sadly ignorant, and still not be racist or homophobic. I see (in my own community's FB bulletin boards) an off-the-deep-end readiness to find racism where none was meant.
Real racism, you're right, is easy to recognize. Many people are looking for it where it doesn't exist, though, in an effort to be recognized as "woke."
4
I don’t think we should call it the “cancel culture.”
I don’t believe I should support a business who’s owner’s views are antithetical to mine or who uses their chosen myth (religion) to discriminate.
VW wants to fake emissions tests? I won’t buy a car.
Facebook sells my personal information? Not if I don’t have an account?
Sleazy contracts at DirecTV? I am not a customer.
Lies on Fox News? I won’t watch it.
Uber mistreats women? They don’t want my rides.
10
@Joe
It's one thing to boycott a business. It's quite another to boycott a person.
7
@Joe boycotting a corporation is different than doing that to a person.
1
A whole generation seems to get their jollies by setting bear traps of jargon and baloney, waiting for people to "offend" them as they trip them, and then enjoy feeling sanctimonious and superior without foundation by hyperbolically criticizing the "offender".
You can play your games. I choose not to participate..
96
What? You are not going to memorize the personal pronouns of everyone?
1
There is nothing new here. Religions have been doing this since the beginning of time.
9
Creepy, especially as a parent of teenagers. Reminds me of the horrendous penalty of being blanked out in other people's vision in the White Christmas episode of Black Mirror.
6
"I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, there is this sense sometimes of: ‘The way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people,’” he said, “and that’s enough.”
“Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb,” he said, “then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, ‘Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out.’”
Barack Obama
35
Millenials are the New Victorians.
63
@roger these aren't Millennial's (they were born 1981-1996). The students in this article are Post-Millennials - born 1997-present.
2
This really is nonsense. “Cancelled” is used of events and it is a solecism to apply it to people. The word they need is “ostracise”.
21
@Paul Hartigan
Language evolves continually, whether we curmudgeons like it or not. It’s pointless to mourn the changes.
7
@Katonah
'There's glory for you!'
'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
8
What a nightmare.
22
Hurtful
Self Righteous
Juvenille
Do these people (children are people) not realise they sound exactly like Donald Trump?
34
Do kids still read The Scarlett Letter in high school?
22
@Greg Ruben - Apparently not.
10
@Greg Ruben
I think it's been cancelled. Or burned.
7
Wow, I don't agree with you so I am just going to shun you. Do that with enough people and you will have no one left to talk to. Whatever happened to authenticity and the right to express yourself?
21
@Sipa111 you have a right to express yourself, but that does not mean anyone has to listen.
1
2019 'Canceled' = 1990's "Talk to the hand."
9
@Matthew But when you said "talk to the hand," you were acknowledging the person, speaking to them directly. This cancel culture seems to mean that you turn your back on their very existence. How painful.
4
And then we are asking why we keep having Columbine repeats.
29
This is so wrong.
People should turn a blind eye to each others failures, mistakes, and bad character traits, show empathy, and fogiveness.
That is what makes us human.
16
Cotton Mather would be proud. When will we see the re-write of Scarlet Letter for the current moment?
22
@John - They already did. See the movie Easy A.
1
Or The Crucible.
1
A young group using an old strategy. For eons it’s been called shunning. Now the bar is so low a mere word is enough to set off the delicate psyches. Listen to Obama, he had some good words to say recently about this facade of self-righteousness indignity,
35
Adolescent homo sapiens have been no doubt ostracizing each other in order to enforce strict adherence to social norms since they were adolescent homo erectus. (Yes, adults and younger children do as well, I suppose).
What's new about this is that they're doing so (a) using a particularly annoying (even by adolescent standards) jargon, and (b) in a manner that can be recorded for posterity (the Internet).
This particular manifestation of the phenomenon shall pass, only to be replaced by another with a different lingo and a maybe even a different means of communication.
14
@ToddTsch
Thank you for noting the cultural evolution angle to this, Todd, I was just about to write when I caught your post.
I have a slight quibble with only one thing, that of calling "using particularly annoying lingo" something new. When my generation was going through this phase fifty years ago, using unique (and often annoying or offensive) words was part of the process of finding our our culture. When has it not been so?
As hypocritically insensitive as this "cancel culture" behavior is, I take hope in the future, because of WHAT they are cancelling each other about. Their idealized norm is inclusiveness and awareness of "other". Hopefully, as they become more mature and grow past the shunning, they will still retain the ideal of inclusiveness.
Maybe even someday they will be able to look back, and laugh at their silly youthful ways.
3
It’s a bit petty to actually find this relevant when there are so much more important subjects to cover. Today it’s cancel culture (guess what you can actually come back from it) tomorrow it’s online shaming.
Let’s be less self absorbed here and discuss more relevant subjects. American culture has always been extremely weird and it won’t change. But this is trivial.
1
It sounds like that "the culture" is creating a generation of judgmental authoritarians disdaining peaceful co-existence and unwilling to compromise in a pluralistic society.
I find this a reflection of the current state of affairs.
35
I'm reminded of the "On Notice/Dead to Me" board in the early years of "The Colbert Report." A flunkie would bring out the stanchion-like board and Colbert's alter ego would decide what topics of the day that angered or bored him were being put "on notice" and which were now officially "dead to him."
The bit was a parody, pointing out the shallowness of punditry, but its hard to tell the difference between that and "cancel culture." One was funny, the other--something else.
7
The one value I can think of to being cancelled is that it teaches independent mindedness rather than going along with the herd. All that means being less susceptible to peer pressure and the various forms it can take, and especially when the various formulations of appropriate behavior sound like something out of a group think manifesto from some totalitarian regime.
5
if this really is different from the generations before (unclear to me), these are going to be very lonely people in their 40s. Social networks tend to shrink even if you aren't actively filtering out every [Trump/Hillary/X] supporter from your life.
Better to cancel out the boring people.
5
Just a new word for shunning- and a new blood sport for high school bullies. How long till there's a horrible shooting by some upset, cancelled student, and we have to take this seriously? How about now, instead. Bullying should not be tolerated. This is an even more insidious form, because it's so easy to deny.
27
What’s not discussed in this article is the fact that people who want to get away with harmful or disgusting behavior will “cancel” victims preemptively or as a form of gaslighting. Then they’ll turn around and form collusive alliances with others against the victim to further strengthen and immunize their position.
19
@Fourteen14 Walking away from a negative influence is very different from sustained public shaming.
20
Advice for all:
Your time is the most valuable thing you control- do not waste it ! select your friends carefully!
Live in the real world.
Live your OWN LIFE, not some TV character's
"As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all'
10
What’s new here is the degree of follow-through possible here, and the lack or impossibility of easy forgetting.
6
I encourage people that have been "cancelled" to wear it as a badge of honor. People that disagree with you or can't take jokes think they can impose their moral framework on you.
Let them, they're not worth your time.
14
This is just crazy. When I was at Georgetown in the early ‘70s, we were all overwhelmed by the intensity and pace of our classes. Everyone lived in the library, with their heads buried in books. It was dead quiet. You could have heard a pin drop.
No one had time for anything but academics. Now, this was a very serious academic school and the students were very serious about school and their future careers. There was no time or space to ‘cancel’ anyone.
Maybe students today need to study more and pay less attention to their social media accounts.
This constant judging is not good. It’s a bad mindset and harmful to everyone.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
—Matthew 7:1
41
Canceling people isn’t new. It used to be called shunning. Religious fanatics use it to punish dissidents and to control free thinkers.
Here’s an excerpt from an article on shunning by Janice Harper in Huffpost:
Shunning is widely practiced among certain religions; the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Scientology, even the otherwise forgiving Amish have made shunning a religious tenet to control the conduct of its members. Families routinely shun other family members, whether through disinheritance and outright withdrawal of any contact or support, or the deafening "silent treatment" that some spouses and parents engage in as a form of punishment for real or perceived offenses. People are shunned in their communities, their clubs and their schools. But perhaps shunning is most common in the workplace, when a worker is targeted for collective aggression and elimination, or "workplace mobbing."
When a person is marked for punishment or elimination by management, workers instinctively avoid being seen with that person for fear of their own status being tarnished in the workplace. ....
The impact of shunning is so severe that those religions, organizations and families which routinely employ it do so because they know just how effective a form of social control the practice can be.
www.huffpost.com/entry/a-reason-and-season-to-st_b_1146103
31
A helpful synonym for "canceling" is "crybullying," so there's no surprise that it has taken hold in middle school and high school. The canceler is saying, "you hurt me, and unless you show me that you really do care about me, I'm going to refuse to care for you at all."
"It doesn't matter whoever else you are, or whatever else you've done. Unless you satisfy me, that you've changed and you're truly sorry, I'm OK with you not existing as a person in my life."
And maybe that works between people who, on some level, care about each other, or have cared about each other in the past. And maybe it's a convenient way of trimming relationships that aren't meaningful anymore, while making the canceler feel righteous.
However, i doesn't work at all between people with no relationship, i.e., the majority of people canceling each other on social media. Why should the canceled person feel remorse, when the people canceling have no relationship standing to do so? All they'll feel is resentment, for being treated as less than a person.
14
Apparently, bullying and social exclusion are brand new cultural phenomena that we need teenagers to explain to us. No matter, I think I understand how this works.
I hereby official declare Cancel Culture cancelled.
There. Move along people, nothing more to see here.
9
Shunning is as old as the bible. Giving it a catchy modern name doesn’t change its roots. It’s a mobbing behavior that stems from agression and desires for control. It represents a groupthink where differences are feared and ostracism is the solution. The insecurities that foster it is one of the paramount failings in the human species.
58
It used to be called shunning. Much easier to shun than to engage. You get to be judge, jury, and executioner. Not surprising to see it feature prominently in this era of Trump, since he models that kind of behavior.
15
I'm not sure how these examples are different than "I don't like you any more so I'm not going to talk to you any more" which is a social behavior that has existed since probably forever.
What I consider "cancel culture" can only exist in the age of social media: Somebody says or write something that someone else finds offensive, then an entire online mob descends to socially shame, bully, and/or humiliate that person (including death threats). It's no different than Gamergate, though "cancel culture" is usually associated with more progressive causes.
Person-to-person interactions and conflicts will always happen, but online "cancel culture" is an example of the unintentional bad effects that social media inflicts onto our society.
15
Mean mothers and fathers produce mean kids. The kids are just imitating how they see their parents treat people. The kids are just using different criteria for dispersing the meanness.
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@Pam
The claim expressed in your first sentence is simplistic and so often disproven. Who hasn’t known kind parents who produced an interpersonally difficult/arrogant kid? And who hasn’t known jerky parents who produced a sweet kid? So many more factors are at play in the determination of both personality and behavior.
32
Blame it on the parents, eh? Funny, we never hear anyone blaming *good* behavior on the parents, especially on the mothers. That should tell you something about the accuracy of such an analysis.
23
@Katonah yeah, it is way to simplistic to blame it on the parents. I am a parent of teens, and I see so many perfectly nice parents agonizing over their children behaving like those in the article.
16
This is toxic. And tribal. Maybe we're too deeply tribal for this wider civilization experiment to succeed long-term.
31
@Working mom, And cruel, too. Perhaps parents can help their children understand the value of helping others grow if children have not in observing how their parents treat them.
1
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." -- Nietzsche
56
One point I see missing in this convo about the social media aspect: kids often feel pressured to “friend” or interact with kids on social media, kids they never would interact with in real life. I saw this when my daughter was in middle school - she friended a bunch of bully girls in the next grade. I was dumbfounded. But she thought it was as considered aggressive not not friend a non-friend. Like she was somehow required to make herself available to these girls. How much of “cancel culture” is an attempt - however crude - to set some boundaries?
6
Cancellation is just ostracism and it’s nothing new. I was ostracized in middle school, growing up in rural Colorado, in the 70s. I never really understood why, just came back from summer vacation one year and the cool kids had decided I wasn’t cool.
It hurt like crazy but it taught me compassion. Not just for the kids who were never cool, but for the ones who were always cool, and scared to death of losing that.
Cancellation/ostracism is simple to do, but it’s never skillful. It troubles our souls, no matter which side of the equation we happen to find ourselves. If the ultimate goal is to be woke, then this is counterproductive.
Compassion isn’t simple. It takes lots of skill, and it’s sometimes insanely difficult and confusing. But it clears our souls, and this is the way to wake.
45
Openness & awareness begins with the ability to self-critique & reflect upon things central to one’s own beliefs, thoughts, actions, behavior, & results. Openness can inform private, personal or group discussions. In 2009 I was asked to help coach a 15U travel baseball team in Parade Grounds Brooklyn NY with the help of one of the previous coaches who stayed on as an assistant. The team had many talented athletes, but most lacked discipline. Prior to my first game as head coach, I met with players & their parents to introduce myself & review my system which addressed the importance of punctuality, respect for the game, & the consequences of not following rules. I organized game lineups based on arrival time & required those who were late to run extra sprints. We won the first game & every player showed up on time for the next game. This group’s biggest constraint was that I didn’t put the group together making past promises by the original coaches unrealistic under my style of leadership. Despite the team winning 40 out of 45 games I coached, only three of the 20 players returned to play for me the following year. I did not fault them for this since I was imposed upon them by the organization’s president, and the 17 who left were unable to grasp how I handled team tryouts. My system called for continuous tryouts throughout the season to discourage complacency, and all playing time was earned based on merit and ability. Or did the 17 kids who left the team just cancelled me?
4
“Cancelling” for something reprehensible is easily justified. However, the punishment not fitting the crime is not only possible but all too likely. Arbitrary decisions will rule; failing to recognize and debate honest differences will further deaden social interactions.
12
This sounds like bullying for the digital age. How many of these teenagers were "cancelled" over something trivial or a misunderstanding? I was bullied in school, and the effects are very long lasting. I do not wish that kind of isolation on anyone. Being a social pariah all through high school hurts. Teens do not have the ability of an adult to quit or move, they are stuck with their peers.
95
All of these examples of cancellation are either completely justifiable or too vague to tell, leading me to believe that there's a reason people won't discuss their actions with more specificity. There's nothing wrong with being encouraged to hold yourself accountable for your words, and I'm glad teenagers today understand this.
3
Like it or not, this is one powerful method of societal self-regulation in areas that aren't (or can't be) regulated by formal law. This and gossip. It may sound counter-intuitive, but the grapevine is what binds a protects a community, and research has shown this to hold across countries and cultures. The grapevine and ostracizing as a form of community self-regulation is one of extremely few practices that are universal. This doesn't happen unless on average the advantages consistently outweigh the disadvantages among different communities.
5
Divided we fall.
Whether another divides us, or we do it ourselves, divided we fall.
14
Its not just todays teenagers - I'm 64 - my father was remarried to a young woman in erearly 20s who had no interest in being a mother to me and he decided to put his relationship with her above all else - ended our 1-on-1 relationship, choosing to see me solely in terms of how I related to her - feeling a need to "protect" her because "in the stories" the stepmother is always hated. I left their house as soon as I was 18 snd never looked back. I "cancelled" them.
The point is self-protection. Tlueenagers do not (or rarely) have any real control over their lives the way adults do. Once someone knows how to hurt you, why put yourself in a position where they can hurt you again? Teenagers lack the legal agency to effectively physically remove themselves from a bad situation - yheir only recourse is to refuse to engage when in potentially harmful situations. Online they can block their oppressors. IRL they "cancel".
A good example of the more things change, the more they stay the same.
9
@Andy : There's a huge difference between what your father and step mom did to you, which was truly awful and emotionally abusive, and what one kid did (be a Trump supporter) in a group of liberal friends.
1
Teach these kids how to engage in a good-faith debate and they’ll learn not only how to question others productively but also how to question their own assumptions and beliefs. Indeed, the population in general could (re)learn these skills. Cancel culture is the result of intellectual, emotional, and social laziness. It’s the easy alternative to self-reflection.
138
@Daniel i agree , teach them also some basic ethical theory and how to reason...
8
@Daniel "Cancel culture is the result of intellectual, emotional, and social laziness."
Hmmmm...I wonder, what person that leads our country could inspire such horrible, and ignorant behavior?
Ah, the cut direct regains its footing. Who knew shunning and shaming would come back into fashion with such a vengeance? The behavior is not new, even if the medium and the precise circumstances are.
135
This doesn't sound like cancel culture, it sounds like people being responsible for themselves and their friends by choosing with whom to associate. I grew up in the 1980s, and we acted no differently then as the young people described in this article. When we met people who were repeatedly rude, imposing, mean, and who weren't willing to try to change that behavior, of course we cut them out of our lives as best we could. If that's cancel culture, it's nothing new.
54
People like having and wielding power. Teenagers have very limited financial and political power, but they do have tremendous power on social media, where they're far savvier than older generations. They've learned that they can exercise their social media power in the form of cancel culture. But as Obama put it so well yesterday, a witty quip calling someone out on Twitter doesn't change minds or bring people to your cause.
91
@Shea A witty quip 'in real life' doesn't do much either.
I don't think much of anything brings people to your cause anymore, because everybody is championing their own cause.
And, who actually changes their minds these days? Especially when they are wrong.
Today, Americans double down on their mistakes. I wonder who they learned that from?
1
Honestly, the social isolation piece doesn't sound much different than when I was in middle and high school. The difference being that when I went home I wasn't double assaulted on social media.
192
@Kristina Precisely what I thought when reading this. In addition, as I recall, the cancellers were often, though not always, the least well-adjusted as years went by.
31
When we try to explain the deeply divided society we live in today, we very frequently - though not exclusively - use social injustice as an explanation. While this might be true to a certain extent, it falls short when it comes to the psycho- and sociological underlying reasons behind it. While bullying is not a particularly new phenomenon, the dynamics of it have changed dramatically in the age of social media. We see now the first generation of young adults who have been growing up living their lives in the public eye of an ever growing and changing social media audience. It is not possible to lead deep and mutually respectful conversations when you limit yourself to the shifting likeability of an edited photo and a message of 140 characters. Sarte said in his 1944 play 'No exit': "L'enfer, c'est les autres". This alone might be misleading had he not also and aequo loco put an emphasis on the importance of the view which other people have about you because it is in this mutual interaction, that we can master the balance between freedom and responsibility. By "cancelling" other people in the blink of a second we take away not only their freedom to be and to grow, but consequently also our own freedom since - in a very existential way - it is true, that "freedom is alway the freedom of dissenters". The true potential for generations to come might be for them to hold the room for dissent in spite of the empty powerhold of public opinion.
20
Teenagers' use of social media has become far too important a means of self-expression and identification. In many cases, it supplants a child's normal growth experience of learning how to deal with conflict, bullies, and other challenging situations. Now, their troubles can simply be "cancelled." Unfortunately, the pain and lack of skill persists into adulthood. Turn off the accounts.
63
@Tom How do you know? There is a great leap in logic here, and while it may be compelling, I am not sure how well it is founded.
It seems recently we were vilifying social media for "putting everything out there" and clucking out tongues that these kids would never escape this digital footprint. Now we have a story that seems to indicate a correction, that this generation is using these digital tools to restore privacy and limit that digital footprint.
Maybe we just quietly observe, and take it in, and trust Pete Townshend that the kids are alright.
4
@Tom
Bingo. These current generation grew up with social media. They have difficulty with “face to face” conversational skills and lack conflict resolution skills.
14
@Jed Suicide rates are on the rise and the culprit is social media. Don't take my word for it. Do some research and you will notice a strong correlation/causation.
7
The "cancel" tactic seems like a logical response to adversity for a generation of native technology users, who can largely avoid having to look someone in the eye, face to face, in order to resolve conflict. In life, binary decisions are always easiest.
40
I tend to think of it as being really selective with who I hang out with. I know very well that I am not the easiest person to get along with. I have a few good friends, and we can talk normally and disagree, but no one gets "canceled".
However, I have a few Trump supporting friends and I am at the point of just letting those friendships die naturally. It's not really worth it to me.
Canceling has always been around and known as various terms such as "the direct cut", shunning, etc. Anyway, it's all part of human nature. And stay off social media, folks.
39
@ksb36
The difference being, ksb36, your use of the phrase. "letting those friendships die naturally".
Wise.
6
Man, I LIVE the cancel culture. Glad it has a name now. I've been boycotting businesses who's policies I don't agree with for decades. There's practically more places I won't patronize than I will. I vote with my wallet and you should, too. Money is the only thing people understand.
94
@Cindy
It's one thing to Cancel a corporation, but it's quite different to Cancel a person.
46
@Angry Woman Well, I'd like to cancel Trump, but the media won't let me.
Maybe I should cancel the media?
Maybe we all should.
2
Boycotting businesses is economic expression. It does not mean you can proudly proclaim you are a pioneer of “cancel culture.” Money doesn’t have the capacity to grow more sophisticated or subtle in its engagement with other money. People do have that capacity.
2
This isn't some new thing, even if there is a new word and culture around it. Shunning and ignoring have always been the tools of hate that high-school and college kids use. "You aren't one of us" is not the accepting and "woke" attitude that these kids think they're displaying.
233
@Charlie Agreed. Shunning is practiced by many cults and religions. The Amish, Scientologists et al. Nothing new just a creepy manifestation of woke culture.
19
@Charlie
Well for one, it seems cancelling is much more ideologically motivated.
2
Shame and alienation are perhaps the worst emotions outside of deep grief--and the most anger-arousing (in part to overcome the self-loathing of shame by blaming others). They aren't small weapons to apply as a group or otherwise. They are dangerous to apply. Young people often underestimate the power they have to cause pain. Be careful, kids.
273
this seems like a very rigid response among kids who are all trying to figure out who they are, and how “society” works. they will find it much more difficult as they grow up to behave in a manner where they refuse to engage with people who are “different” or “other”. They will end up with a very narrow view of what society is.
147
@Michelle Neumann These kids are just learning from the adults. What do you expect in the 'Age Of Trump?'
Trump has 'canceled' half of his cabinet. I think that's far more scary than what teens are doing in HS.
3
"Alex thinks of it as a permanent label. 'Now they’ll forever be thought of as that action, not for the person they are,' she said...
"Even if you accidentally misgendered someone, the new students were told, you needed to be either called out or called in. ('Called in' means to be gently led to understand your error; call-outs are more aggressive.)...
“'We wouldn’t tolerate it anymore, we cut him out of our lives.'"
It's the Cultural Revolution all over again. Wrongthink, ritual denunciation, and struggle sessions. O brave new world!
346
"Canceling" is the same as shunning.
299
@Jiro SF
Only more devastating to young people due to social media.
29
@Jiro SF In England, the phrase is that someone is “sent to Coventry”.
9
@Jiro SF Agree, this kind of meanness went on in my school years from 3rd grade on - that would have been the mid-1960's through late 70's. No social media, but I remember "slam books" - spiral notebooks being passed around specifically for the purpose of writing and reading nasty things about classmates.
7
‘Canceled’ culture has been around for a long time. Whether you call it boycott, shun or ‘cancel’, they essentially mean the same thing. The only difference being that now social media and our digital life dominate our actual lives to such an extent that the impact of ‘cancel culture’ seems quite overwhelming and pervasive.
Regardless, with violent, gun-related tragedies unfolding in one city/state to the next every other day, this evil of ‘cancel culture’ needs to be nipped in the bud or else ... our whole society will be, dare I say, Canceled.
31
@MASA , The bar is lower and perhaps unpredictable with canceling culture since misgendering someone could be a cause for being cancelled.
“We wouldn’t tolerate it anymore, we cut him out of our lives,”. Another shining example of the social media culture spreading beyond the boundaries of the media itself. But as a manager of a rather large department in an international company, I’m sitting here wondering how people that act like this are going to survive in the working world some day, at least the one I’m currently in. I’m thinking that “canceling” might not be the most effective tool to be proficient at...
285
@John I am assuming they will moderate as they grow older. I do very much admire that they don't feel like their have to put up with the dramatics or lousy behavior in the interests of getting along. I see the high schoolers I teach drawing healthy boundaries for what it takes to be their friends now, regardless of the social status of the canceled ones. I am liking that a lot.
15
@John Its okay to keep things on a professional level. I think that's where this is headed, in the work place. I am "friendly" with my co-workers, but we ain't "friends". Its easier that way. Keep the personal and professional separate.
25
@StephinSeattle Refusing to acknowledge the existence of people with whom you disagree is not "drawing healthy boundaries." It's throwing a tantrum.
55
Being "cancelled" has been a thing since the movie New Jack City (1991) came out. It's one of my favorite lines in the movie. Unfortunately, it's too explicit for the comment section. I love this generation, but they are not responsible for all that is cool and trendy.
23