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Scott posted Lukianoff And Defining Cancel Culture. He takes one of the given definitions of cancel culture and tries to see how it applies to edge cases, and whether it makes sense as a definition. I thought the comments on the slatestarcodex reddit thread were pretty good. I tried to post a synthesis of the ideas I got while reading the comments:
Cancel culture is speaking about and coordinating your disassociation with a person.
You have the right to not associate with people. You should feel free to exercise that right when you personally notice them doing something you don't like.
To avoid being a part of cancel culture:
Supplemental section.
Applying these to Scott's examples:
A1-A6 are not cancel culture. The actor is taking personal steps to change their association with someone they don't like.
A7-A12 are cancel culture. The actor is trying to coordinate and spread their disassociation with someone.
The other ones are a bit more complex.
B1-B2 The university admin isn't really the prime source of "cancel culture" in this example. It is the newspaper that is trying to publish a juicy story. I think the university admin is fine to resist as much as they feel comfortable resisting, but is not obligated to resist at all. The newspaper is bad, and you should cancel your subscription from that newspaper (and only tell the newspaper why you are cancelling).
B3-B5 It is cancel culture to write the article and focus it on the grad student or any particular person as the problem. If you are able to anonymize the grad student and others involved then it is not very cancel culture. If others then dig deeper and de-anonymize the grad student, they are cancel culture. If you wish to be part of the anti-cancel-culture alliance, probably don't write it at all. If you just wish to follow politeness norms anonymize the people involved to the best of your ability. If you want to be a part of cancel culture make the article entirely about the grad student.
C1 The New York Times was doing cancel culture against Scott. His friends did cancel culture against the New York Times. Scott in his articles about the situation did not encourage cancel culture. Tit-for-tat strategy can be good for getting people to not do things. But it needs to be handled carefully. Retaliate for specific instances against exact people. Do not retaliate for general attacks by generally attacking the other direction.
C2 Scott can personally cancel his subscription and never associate with the Atlantic again. That is not cancel culture. Telling us about it is cancel culture.
I'm late to this thread, but I did read Scott's post a few days ago. I don't love any of his examples or his framing. To me there are three categories to consider:
The first two categories are not cancel culture. They are just economics and personal/group preference. Companies may change their behavior in response to the economic reality, including terminating employees, but these are in response to employees directing the company in an unprofitable direction. The desired outcome, if accomplished at all, is achieved passively. All choices are made by the company in response to changing circumstances. Budweiser, Gillette, and Dixie Chicks all fall into this category.
The third category is cancel culture. It is a direct and active demand on the company to change it's behavior in some way. The company often has no direct economic rationale for taking the action. The action, if taken, is done to placate the mob. Gina Carano was well liked as Cara Dune, but Disney caved under pressure. My own company, who publicly espouses values disconnected from their core mission that are somewhat misaligned from my own, would happily sacrifice me to avoid an online mob, despite my opinions having zero to do with my company's profitability. Indeed, official policy states that an employee is liable to termination if they make controversial posts and are subsequently revealed to be an employee. This has an absolutely chilling effect on speech.
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