by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
One thing I struggle a lot with is how real “woke cancel culture” even is beyond the fevered political wet dreams of MAGA New Right Republicans. It seems to me that a number of different things are happening and they’re being all referenced as the same thing — “woke cancel culture.”
I do think that on social issues younger people — the ones who are the most Very Online — do have different expectations than the Olds. As such, when Olds do something that crosses them, they’re the first to flip out on Twitter about it.
Another thing that is going on is Republicans are using any sign of the above to stoke their base’ absolute visceral paranoia about being “canceled” just for being conservative. I know from my Traditionalist relatives that the abstract fear of being “canceled” is at the very forefront of their minds. Their fear is, in general, that they will say something Not Leftist in public, it will be recorded by someone with a smartphone, it will go viral and their Lives With Be Ruined.
But there’s more going on even all that which makes things even murkier. The #MeToo movement was a revolution in gender politics that, like all revolutions, kind of went to extremes at points. (All the name brand people who were brought down by the #MeToo movement definitely deserved it, but the Aziz Ansari event is something I struggle with because of its complexity.)
And, lastly, a number of the people associated with being “victims” of “woke cancel culture” either deserved it or are doing quite well, thank you. I mean, Dave Chappelle continues, to this day, to tell “transphobic” jokes and he’s the biggest comic in the world.
Tell me, Fox News, how he’s been canceled.
I don’t know. I just don’t know. It’s all very complicated and needs a nuanced response, something that is impossible to get in an age that lacks subtly.
