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Notes -
It's Different When We Do It
I'm against Libs of TikTok cancelling random poor workers for not knowing when to shut up. But this article makes a case for it.
First, the author makes a case that "Normie Bloodlust" is common and never punished. Think of people expressing hope that a rapist is raped in prison. I don't think the author believes that this behavior is good, per se, just common and usually unpunished.
He then goes on to say that "there’s nothing unfair, and certainly nothing unconstitutional, about facing social opprobrium for unpopular speech and behavior." He seems to support that sort of cancellation, whichever side of the aisle it is coming from.
But then he argues that the Right has been facing a different, unfair type of cancellation:
The last interesting point he makes is that:
I think he makes some good points though I disagree with the conclusion that it is fine and dandy for the Right to cancel struggling zero-influence people for saying things that were normal to say two weeks ago.
Yeah, I can understand the sentiment of "I am not getting in the way of this mob, after what you've done (/not done) to me" but actively whipping the mob into a frenzy is another story.
On an individual level, anger is a good deterrent. You do stupid, irresponsible things when really angry, potentially seriously harming yourself and your future prospects just to hurt the target of your ire. It's not that doing so is rational--it's that in some ways being an angry person, and in a sense precommitting to being irrational when angry, can be a good strategy. This is the case for revenge more generally. It's not particularly in America's interests to nuke whatever country has sent nukes flying America's way, but doing so is a good deterrent, so credibly precommitting to nuclear war is ironically possibly the best way to avoid nuclear war.
I see the mob the same way. It's not that cancellations etc. are good per se, but the existence of repercussions for voicing seriously delusional takes creates a chilling effect and prevents many of those takes from being voiced in the first place. Being a bit unnecessarily cruel towards people who cross major lines is a generally pretty good way to prevent those lines from being crossed at all.
this is good in principle, but it would seem as of it when one side is typically on the of said repercussions. California has the right approach in this regard, for everything else that is wrong with the Golden state.
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