Azaran on 27/9/2025 at 17:22
Quote Posted by SD
I'm pleased that the left is finally seeing what a mistake it was to invent cancel culture. Ideally this will lead to a period of self-reflection, but I think that's a forlorn hope.
Cancel culture goes both ways, and each side feels justified when they do it, but when the other does it it's a problem.
Saw this on FB the other day, relevant
Inline Image:
https://i.postimg.cc/br72bHdY/dd2gi4k46ya11.jpgSD on 27/9/2025 at 17:33
Quote Posted by Azaran
Cancel culture goes both ways, and each side feels justified when they do it, but when the other does it it's a problem.
There's a considerable amount of hypocrisy on both sides, but those on the left have consistently been the biggest cheerleaders for cancel culture. It's only two years since Rolling Stone unironically ran an article entitled "Why Cancel Culture is Good for Democracy".
Azaran on 27/9/2025 at 17:41
Quote Posted by SD
It's only two years since Rolling Stone unironically ran an article entitled "Why Cancel Culture is Good for Democracy".
Yikes.
Ironically, I also remember years ago people saying stuff along the lines of "there's no such thing as cancel culture, you're just getting what you deserve"
Nicker on 27/9/2025 at 18:43
Quote Posted by SD
There's a considerable amount of hypocrisy on both sides, but those on the left have consistently been the biggest cheerleaders for cancel culture.
In the opinion of the right. And here you go again with your false equivalencies and equivocations.
Leftish cancel culture is mostly grass roots opposition - boycotts, protests. Modern right-wing cancel culture starts at the top, with the hurt feewings of Der Klown45. These become attack orders and are relayed straight to lackeys in his administration for execution (Kimmel, Colbert, etc. etc. etc.). Failing to kiss the ass, failing to carry out illegal orders, failing to suppress data which doesn't compliment Dear Leader. And the results are fast and overwhelming.
Left and Right cancel cultures are very different creatures with the same name.
heywood on 27/9/2025 at 20:01
Bothsiderism is totally appropriate in this case. Civil libertarians somehow found themselves in the center, with censor monkeys on either side flinging poo at each other.
SD on 27/9/2025 at 23:03
Quote Posted by Nicker
In the opinion of the right. And here you go again with your false equivalencies and equivocations.
Leftish cancel culture is mostly grass roots opposition - boycotts, protests. Modern right-wing cancel culture starts at the top, with the hurt feewings of Der Klown45. These become attack orders and are relayed straight to lackeys in his administration for execution (Kimmel, Colbert, etc. etc. etc.). Failing to kiss the ass, failing to carry out illegal orders, failing to suppress data which doesn't compliment Dear Leader. And the results are fast and overwhelming.
Left and Right cancel cultures are very different creatures with the same name.
Oh, you're right there's some false equivalency on my part, and if anything, I'm being generous to the left. They were cancelling people for holding the "wrong" beliefs. Whereas the right are now cancelling people for celebrating a murder.
Azaran on 27/9/2025 at 23:15
Quote Posted by SD
Oh, you're right there's some false equivalency on my part, and if anything, I'm being generous to the left. They were cancelling people for holding the "wrong" beliefs. Whereas the right are now cancelling people for celebrating a murder.
I don't wanna derail the thread too much, but right wing extremists weren't the only people being canceled and deplatformed in old Twitter. There was a lot of sketchy stuff going on.
This was during one of the regular islamist reigns of terror in Bangladesh (triggered by an alleged insult to the Prophet), where Hindus and other non-Muslims were under attack. Twitter deleted the accounts who were reporting on the atrocities. Meanwhile, they would take their sweet time in banning ISIL-connected accounts
Inline Image:
https://i.postimg.cc/MpySgtsS/dd2gi4k46ya11.jpgImagine bringing awareness of persecution and atrocities, and your account gets banned because (presumably?) it makes the perpretrators look bad?
heywood on 28/9/2025 at 00:04
Sadly, the degree of freedom you have on social media platforms varies by jurisdiction.
Starker on 28/9/2025 at 02:00
To be clear, the right-wing cancel culture campaign is not aimed against people who celebrate Kirk's murder (though there are a few of those). It's against anyone even remotely critical of Kirk, anyone seeming flippant, ironic, or sarcastic, anyone pointing out how right-wing political activists are exploiting the murder, anyone quoting Kirk in a less than favourable light, etc.
Not that it's a particularly great surprise, but the free speech absolutists turned out to have been closet authoritarians all along, especially as some of the very same people gleefully made jokes about and cheered Pelosi's husband having his skull bashed in with a hammer by a guy who wanted to kidnap and torture Pelosi.
Starker on 28/9/2025 at 04:31
Quote Posted by Azaran
Cancel culture goes both ways, and each side feels justified when they do it, but when the other does it it's a problem.
Saw this on FB the other day, relevant
It's an interesting comparison, since Barr was making racist and antisemitic tweets as well as supporting people like Tommy Robinson. What Barr said was truly vile. Nevertheless, Obama didn't demand that she should be fired. Neither did the FCC, to the best of our knowledge, try to pressure the company to cancel her show.
On the other hand, Kimmel was making fun of the president and his followers, not of Kirk, while very clearly condemning the murder. The FCC made direct threats to make life uncomfortable for his company if he wasn't fired and the US president himself has demanded not only his firing, but also other people with critical/unflattering takes of him, such as Seth Myers and Jimmy Fallon.
How are these two situations anything like each other?
