What I find very strange about this thread is the politicization of it.
Let's broadly divide the thread into two groups: "anti-cancel-culture" (ACC) and "pro-choice-cancellationist" (PCC).
The ACC side of the argument are generally opposed to a behavior. The PCC side of the argument seems to be opposed to a political perspective. The ACC side has provided scenarios that they consider to be "cancel culture", which have included actors that exist on both liberal and conservative ends of the political spectrum. The PCC side keeps blaming everything on "the right wing".
And the reason we do so is...the actual common usage of the term is as a right-wing complaint about the actions of individuals or groups, regardless of what they are motivated by. Nobody "cancelled" Mr. Potatohead, Dr. Seuss, or the Muppets - these were just corporate decisions to change trademarks, drop embarrassing products, or add disclaimers about old-timey bigotry, respectively. The first and third examples are still easy to find - Mr. Potatohead and the rest of the Potatohead line are still for sale, the Muppets are on...Disney+ I think - and the second were simply not popular, which is why they're represented by The Cat in the Hat, rather than the less popular "chinaman who eats with sticks" or the nightmarish thing on the "If I Ran the Zoo" cover.
Seriously, that thing's terrifying.
I wouldn't be shocked if it were to resurface as "#CancelCoke", on the left, due to alliteration. It just sounds good, and refers to a previous campaign #CancelCosby. That's how an actual culture works - although the culture here is more "black Twitter" than "cancel culture", which is also only interesting as an alliteration, which is why we aren't discussing "muting culture" despite the more prominent #MuteRkelly hashtag.
But again, "cancel Culture" does not, in any way, refer to a demand to fire someone, or a boycott threat or action, in most cases where it's invoked. It's much more broadly tied to the specific signifier or political position being perceived - which, again, is often just "let's be more accepting of marginalized groups", but can be mangled beyond that, painting Dolt45's second impeachment as "Presidential cancel culture", or the MyPillow GUy's being dropped from various retailers for his advocacy of overthrowing democracy.
It also explains why right-wingers don't recognize it as "Cancel Culture" when they boycott, get people fired, etc. for *favoring* democracy, civil rights, and the like. It's because...
The US right wing also understands the definition of "Cancel Culture" to be "People are trying to accept and support marginalized groups instead of the rigid social caste system of generations prior".
...and when you take this as the definition, rather than "any boycott meant to pressure corporations into taking an action", you find that fits the actual usage far better.
ETA: It's akin to the use of "the Woke mob" and such. "Woke", in black media, basically means "aware of and actively against anti-black discrimination." It's used to the point that people who speculate broad white supremacist conspiracies (often while calling black women "my queen" and wearing appropriated outfits from various African groups) are chided as being "too woke" and told to "take a nap". But in right wing parlance the "woke mob" is the "they" that pushes "cancel culture". I've noted before that they're accidentally close to the bullseye when they denounce "Wokeist" professors, companies, and the like, for denouncing flatly white supremacist laws and icons or obviously anti-black voter suppression bills. Close, and yet at least pretending not to understand why they're close.
