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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023

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Louis C.K. was trending on Twitter because his Madison Square Garden concert was sold out, which some on the left are interpreting to mean that cancel culture is not real, or that it does not hurt people's careers. (link: https://archive.is/ryKrI )

What does it mean to be sufficiently canceled? I think Louis C.K. qualifies as having been sufficiently cancelled. If you look at his Wikipedia page, his sexual misconduct scandal, in 2017, killed off his TV and movie career. His filmography abruptly ends in 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_C.K._filmography

Sure he's still able to sell out, but this reflects individual preferences for his comedy, not the approval of the media establishment, in which he is still damaged goods. Comedians are sorta like contractors in the sense that they have to hustle, not depend on a platform or the backing of a major media establishment. I think this is is what gives comedians an advantage over actors in regard to cancellation, because stand-up comedy can be inexpensively distributed at scale, such as digitally online, without needing the backing of an entire studio or publishing house.

Louis CK was the biggest stand-up comedian before Chapelle came back. MSG was Louis CK's playground, with him doing sets there whenever he wished. He talks about how nervous he was about his MSG set, the amount of work that went into it and how different it felt.

For one, nothing Louis CK did was criminal. From the sounds of it, he never pulled his dick out unless the other person provided consent for it, and he was never in an explicit boss-employee relationship with women he approached. Yes, it was creepy, inept, unethical & sad. But it's amateur hour as far as showbiz goes. After Aziz, Louis CK was cancelled for the least egregious of the #metoo accusations.

Louis CK's entire persona was of a sad lonely dad in a tragic-comedy. If anything, this plays straight into it. If they/them Ezra Miller still gets to play a role model character after doing some actually criminal stuff, then CK's humble image would be expected to be resilient to accusations of being the person his comedy has portrayed him as for 30 years.

In the least woke profession, the greatest practitioner & the least egregious sexual creep, who never put himself on a pedestal can come back after a few years and have moderate success as along as he lives a now sin-free life and keeps performing at his GOAT best.

If that's the claim, then it sounds like the exception that proves the rule.

90s rappers killed people and were embraced by the institution. Now people are losing jobs over suspicions of being republican.


P.S : Just to be clear, no justifying his behavior. It was obviously degenerate. Don't idolize entertainers. IMO, his temporary banishment from institutions & public apology was appropriate punishment. It is probably fair for women actors to not want to work with him again too. It's their choice. But the global scale of bullying & still-continuing blackout are honestly a bit much.

From the sounds of it, he never pulled his dick out unless the other person provided consent for it

Really? Is that true? I didn't follow the story closely at all, so I'm only inferring details. But if he didn't do anything without them saying they were okay with it, then why was he cancelled at all?

From what I recall from the stories it was an almost childish form of 'seeking permission'. Basically he seemed to spring it fast and then, if no one immediately and vociferously objected, he...um, quickly followed through.

The image that comes to mind is an overeager kid going "umcanIkissyou" and then "but you didn't say no!".

My opinion is that it's the sort of defense ("but he asked!") that only seems acceptable when all norms except consent have been so eroded (by the sexual revolution and the same tribe now pushing #MeToo) that only the barest, hyper-literal contractionism counts.

At this point liberal feminism has so thoroughly corrupted shaped mores that it's fighting its own twisted children.

At this point liberal feminism has so thoroughly corrupted shaped mores that it's fighting its own twisted children.

Hmm, I guess I'd feel better about that if they ever took responsibility for what they've done, and actually blamed feminism, past or present, for any bad thing that happens, as opposed to just saying "it's patriarchy". Like Scott so eloquently put in his least favorite post for people to link to:

If patriarchy means everything in the world, then yes, it is the fault of patriarchy. But it’s the kind of patriarchy that feminism as a movement is working day in and day out to reinforce.

At this point liberal feminism has so thoroughly corrupted shaped mores that it's fighting its own twisted children.

You could almost say that they have chosen the form of their destructor.

Or that they called up that which they could not put down.

Louis would definitely cross the streams

except consent

That doesn't matter either; the meta-rule is just "woman good, man bad".

An inherently sexist movement was always going to end badly, just as the racist ones do; this is why the only stable equilibrium (and what feminism originally started with) over time has been "people who can do the work good, people who can't do the work bad".

After all, the latter category already has levers they can pull to get their way; no need to give them any more than that.