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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.

It is a culture war issue because of the selectiveness in cancellation.

  • There are rappers who have murdered people & are heroes of the music industry

  • Chris Brown pummeled Rihanna to within an inch of her life

  • Ezra Miller seems to be collecting a bingo card of cancellable stuff, but being they/them protects him

  • Drake has been openly being creepy towards 14yr olds while topping charts

culture where it’s socially acceptable

Do you want to pretend as if the entertainment industry suddenly grew a spine ? It has been ground zero for every kind of socially unacceptable thing for decades now.

old men

If the claims are to believed this was in his 30s. He was sexually approaching his coworkers when he was out of his marriage. The question is, how cancellable would this have been if he was an attractive man instead ?

Enough to get him fired from the job. Enough for women to think he's a creep. Enough to ruin his PR.

All 3 happened at a much bigger scale for Louis CK. So, the accusation of 'he was not cancelled enough' is clearly false.

You don't have to defend his actions to also think that punishments need to be fair.

To be clear, I always expected rappers to get a free pass on bad behavior, and they/thems to get a free pass on creepiness towards children. Louis CK is neither.