This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
"Cornell student Austin Franco was doxxed by Jewish business leaders after explaining that he “didn’t want to work for a Jew,” claiming his experiences with Jews were not “pleasant,” after a NYC startup he had applied to reached out to him three times.":
Subsequently:
a literal Trump Admin official announces that he's going to dedicate his life to ensuring this student never works again
the British Daily Mail ran an article calling this random 19 year old an "entitled Cornell student"
FOX ran multiple stories on this kid, with one contributor demanding that his "life be ruined" while another compares being jewish among goys to being a human amongst the Planet of the Apes.
I was told that "woke is dead" but it seems cancel culture is alive and well on the kosher Right. How is one supposed to take any of the clowns seriously attacking "woke leftists" when they act like this? Why is "student doesn't want to work for jews" worthy of being elevated to international news?
First time? There has been plenty of back and forth discussion about this topic here, but the fundamental conclusion I have made is that large swaths of the right only dislike cancel culture because they are the ones being cancelled. It's very much a "not wrong tactic, just wrong targets" mentality. Pointing out that conservatives in the form of the Moral Majority spent plenty of effort in the 70s and 80s deploying cancel culture on wrong thinkers, gets you admissions that the rightist agrees with the MM's positions and thus thinks the cancel was justified. Woke culture is very much American Christian culture minus the Deus. The social weapons deployed by outraged church ladies and woke Karen's is the same thing, because they are the same personality/values. So you haven't been fighting to end the use of the weapon but instead to determine the flavor of boot you want to lick.
This gets into the larger problem of conflict theorists being equivalent to demon's in Frieren. The use of language by them is essentially meaningless. It's used to position themselves in better spots to be able to deploy power and violence to achieve their ends. Any whining about cancel culture targeting righties is the behavior of an alzabo luring you into letting your guard down. The future skill required for being on the internet or in political discussion is detecting when it's happening.
Exactly who did the Moral Majority cancel? Bearing in mind that there was no social media then.
I compiled a bunch of evidence the last time this came up. link. And yes the lack of internet cuts both ways. Only the most famous cases were recorded as they made it to the court system. Talking to people alive during that time about their experience/remembrances leaves the impression that the MM operated pretty locally with disapproving church ladies calling your local employer to get you fired for being gay, or playing D&D. Obviously stuff like that is not recorded in any way near levels of record, the way the internet records things these days.
"Cancellation" doesn't mean "every time someone is fired because their boss doesn't like them". There have always been bosses that didn't like people for arbitrary reasons and fired them. The significant part of cancellation here is that it's mob rule; someone doesn't want to fire a person (or make a decision of similar import such as expelling them from college), but the mob threatens them with consequences unless they do.
None of your examples are cancellation. Some of them don't even involve people being fired at all.
(Another aspect of cancellation is that it's done for things outside your job. Examples of right-wing "cancellation" often fail on this aspect too.)
The most recent right-wing thing I can think of that actually qualifies as cancellation would be McCarthyism.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link