Cancel culture IRL

[Distracted1]

Of course it is. The word "boycott" isn't just a random collection of syllables.



A small number of people do, for sure. Sometimes it even works - mostly when the person actually has done something egregious. Is this really a significant problem? If you listen to many of the critics it will be the downfall of society.

It's also worth bearing in mind that it can also act as something of a counter-balance to things like, for example, minorities not being hired for jobs or not sticking with jobs because of unfair hiring practices or hostile work environments.

Yes, there are certainly individual incidents of people losing their jobs or facing a public backlash are flat-out wrong. And a small proportion of that wouldn't actually be mitigated by the US having better protection for workers, which is what the main issue often seems ultimately to boil down to.

But, it mostly seems to be that frivolous claims like in the OP are dismissed by this supposed "culture". And as a general rule, I don't see much of a problem with people being held accountable for their actions. It is, after all, exactly this that is seeing people like the murderers of George Floyd and Ahmaud Aubrey not getting away with their crimes: people filming incidents and then uploading the footage to the internet while saying "this is not okay".

And the acceptance by people who aren't on the far right of their narrative of "cancel culture" has now given the far right the justification for cancelling people of "I'm just playing by the left's rules". It's another propaganda victory for the right, and one that's been more successful than it's predecessors of "it's PC gone MAD!" and "You can't say anything any more". Probably because it's a catchier name. But it's just the same thing again, as far as I can see.

Like these people?

https://www.newsweek.com/shooting-police-officer-protest-wisconsin-black-lives-matter-1523915

Real world cancelling, no?
Egged on by Jay-Z no less.

https://patch.com/wisconsin/wauwatosa/group-founded-jay-z-calls-wauwatosa-officers-firing

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I think so.

Everyone does something egregious at some time or another. People have bad days.

It's a case of "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." People don't imagine that they, themselves, ever do anything which, if caught on video, would result in them being "cancelled". The fact is that darned near everyone does things like that at some point or another. Hwoever, your friends or colleagues brush it off because they know you and they know "That's just the way Bob is." or sometimes, "Wow. That's not like Bob. Something must really be bugging him. I wonder what's wrong."

I've had some big whoopsies, but I can't say I've ever had a racist meltdown in public, which is often what it takes to get actually canceled. I feel fine chucking a stone. Maybe I can get a bit of spin on it too to really sting when it lands.

 

[Emily's Cat]

How many distinct examples of viral social media pile-ons designed to punish an errant individual would it take to convince you?

I'm going to guess the answer is "however many have been provided plus infinity"

Every case is a special case, and every case has to be considered on its own, in a vacuum, with no consideration for the pattern overall. Each is a unique and special tree. And in those rare cases where the behavior from the non-existent mob that is definitely not making death threats against someone for no good reason actually does get addressed and someone... oh i dunno... sues a bunch of media companies for false reporting and putting their life and the lives of their family in danger... Well... those people got a lot of money, so it was actually *lucky* for them that the non-existent social-media "mob" threatened them, right?

And by the way, that argument is absolutely 100% completely and totally different from any argument made by other people about black victims of police violence needing to all be looked at individually as unique and unrelated events with no consideration for the pattern of behavior, and in those cases where it seems like it was totally unwarranted, I bet something can be found that proves that the victim actually deserved it. Yep. Completely different.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I'm going to guess the answer is "however many have been provided plus infinity"

Every case is a special case, and every case has to be considered on its own, in a vacuum, with no consideration for the pattern overall. Each is a unique and special tree. And in those rare cases where the behavior from the non-existent mob that is definitely not making death threats against someone for no good reason actually does get addressed and someone... oh i dunno... sues a bunch of media companies for false reporting and putting their life and the lives of their family in danger... Well... those people got a lot of money, so it was actually *lucky* for them that the non-existent social-media "mob" threatened them, right?

And by the way, that argument is absolutely 100% completely and totally different from any argument made by other people about black victims of police violence needing to all be looked at individually as unique and unrelated events with no consideration for the pattern of behavior, and in those cases where it seems like it was totally unwarranted, I bet something can be found that proves that the victim actually deserved it. Yep. Completely different.

It would be easier to establish a pattern of cancel culture run amok if examples like this, where cancellation notably did not occur, were not the ones offered.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I think so.

Everyone does something egregious at some time or another. People have bad days.

It's a case of "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." People don't imagine that they, themselves, ever do anything which, if caught on video, would result in them being "cancelled". The fact is that darned near everyone does things like that at some point or another. Hwoever, your friends or colleagues brush it off because they know you and they know "That's just the way Bob is." or sometimes, "Wow. That's not like Bob. Something must really be bugging him. I wonder what's wrong."

No I have never gone on a racist diatribe. I know people should be able to do so in public with out consequence, which is why I am always surprised that Jeremy Joseph Christian is not a hero of the anti cancel culture folks as he stood up for his free speech rights, and refused to let the SJW silence him. And for that he is sentenced to prison for life?

 

[ponderingturtle]

It would be easier to establish a pattern of cancel culture run amok if examples like this, where cancellation notably did not occur, were not the ones offered.

Jeremy Joseph Christian is a good example but they shy away from hit because of the aggressive way he stood up for his rights. They were trying to silence his normal diatribe at those two girls that really anyone could do.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

No I have never gone on a racist diatribe. I know people should be able to do so in public with out consequence, which is why I am always surprised that Jeremy Joseph Christian is not a hero of the anti cancel culture folks as he stood up for his free speech rights, and refused to let the SJW silence him. And for that he is sentenced to prison for life?

If it helps, Christian assaulted a black woman on the MAX the day before the notorious murders. Cop let him go.

So nice of cancel culture to let a Neo-Nazi have a warm up lap before a triple stabbing.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Remember when Roseanne was cancelled for singing the national anthem badly? Then fifty years later she got cancelled again for reasons I forget. She could have saved time by staying cancelled. You throw millions of dollars at someone and they think it means they're off the hook, but the mob is remarkably petty.

Poor Milo Yiannopolis is another example. His whole thing was being controversial, and the right loved him for it. Then he took one tiny step over some unstated line and bam! suddenly they cancelled him.

 

[Distracted1]

It would be easier to establish a pattern of cancel culture run amok if examples like this, where cancellation notably did not occur, were not the ones offered.

Agreed. Attempted "cancellation" is not cancellation. Not always so easy to get the mob worked up.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Remember when Roseanne was cancelled for singing the national anthem badly? Then fifty years later she got cancelled again for reasons I forget. She could have saved time by staying cancelled. You throw millions of dollars at someone and they think it means they're off the hook, but the mob is remarkably petty.

Poor Milo Yiannopolis is another example. His whole thing was being controversial, and the right loved him for it. Then he took one tiny step over some unstated line and bam! suddenly they cancelled him.

Or an older example Mel Gibson for his thoughts on the jews.

 

[Distracted1]

If it helps, Christian assaulted a black woman on the MAX the day before the notorious murders. Cop let him go.

So nice of cancel culture to let a Neo-Nazi have a warm up lap before a triple stabbing.

That was not a failing of the culture. It was poor policing to let that guy get away the first time. Stronger methods should have been used to detain him.
At least until the social workers could have arrived to deal with his mental illness.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Or an older example Mel Gibson for his thoughts on the jews.

Hell, people have been "cancelling" people forever. It used to be because they had sex. Remember Ingrid Bergman's affair? Probably not, but it was a big deal at the time. Lawrence Welk having those divorced women on his show? That was a scandal and boycott.

eta: corrected Ingmar to Ingrid.

 

[ponderingturtle]

That was not a failing of the culture. It was poor policing to let that guy get away the first time. Stronger methods should have been used to detain him.

Why are you trying to cancel him like that, what about his first amendment rights?

 

[Emily's Cat]

It would be easier to establish a pattern of cancel culture run amok if examples like this, where cancellation notably did not occur, were not the ones offered.

It would be easier to establish a pattern of police brutality against black men run amok, if cases where the police notably did not brutalize a black man, were never discussed.


On a more serious note... No, in this case it backfired. You know why we say it backfired? Because it was obviously the intention of the twit in question to get the internet riled up and punish that Kroger's manager. Do you know what we call the intention here? A reflection of cancel culture. Now, you can take exception to the name given to it, much as I take exception to "Karen". But that doesn't make the pattern of behavior disappear. And you can note that this sort of thing has been around forever and isn't new. But that doesn't make it acceptable.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

It would be easier to establish a pattern of police brutality against black men run amok, if cases where the police notably did not brutalize a black man, were never discussed.


On a more serious note... No, in this case it backfired. You know why we say it backfired? Because it was obviously the intention of the twit in question to get the internet riled up and punish that Kroger's manager. Do you know what we call the intention here? A reflection of cancel culture. Now, you can take exception to the name given to it, much as I take exception to "Karen". But that doesn't make the pattern of behavior disappear. And you can note that this sort of thing has been around forever and isn't new. But that doesn't make it acceptable.

Perhaps the person trying to cancel the grocery store worker had an overly hyperbolic understanding of how cancel culture actually works. Or maybe they had terrible judgement.

Seems that the slavering, blood thirsty mob managed to suss out this attempt pretty quickly.

 

[Distracted1]

Why are you trying to cancel him like that, what about his first amendment rights?

They ended when he assaulted the woman with a bottle.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

That was not a failing of the culture. It was poor policing to let that guy get away the first time. Stronger methods should have been used to detain him.
At least until the social workers could have arrived to deal with his mental illness.

A social worker couldn't have done worse, since the cops did nothing.

 

[Meadmaker]

I've had some big whoopsies, but I can't say I've ever had a racist meltdown in public, which is often what it takes to get actually canceled. I feel fine chucking a stone. Maybe I can get a bit of spin on it too to really sting when it lands.

I thought of an interesting example.

Remember the woman who said, "We need some muscle over here!"

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I thought of an interesting example.

Remember the woman who said, "We need some muscle over here!"

She got another job. I would assume she was chastened by the experience. Life moves on, as it seems to do with all these "victims" of cancel culture.

 

[Distracted1]

A social worker couldn't have done worse, since the cops did nothing.

They don't want to risk being cancelled.
Like this guy:

https://www.newsweek.com/shooting-police-officer-protest-wisconsin-black-lives-matter-1523915


"On August 8th, 2020 at approximately 8:05 PM, a large group gathered in the area of N. 100. St. and W. Vienna St. in the City of Wauwatosa. The group, estimated to be between fifty and sixty people, targeted the private residence of Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah and began to vandalize the home," said Wauwatosa Police Department in a statement.

"Officer Mensah attempted to establish a dialog with the group but was ultimately physically assaulted outside of his home. As Officer Mensah retreated into his home, armed protestors approached the rear door and a single shotgun round was discharged by a member of the group into Officer Mensah's backdoor."