The original cancel cultures
[ Originally posted in a private space, 2022-04-14; lightly edited. ]
‘Cancel culture’? You mean, racism and white supremacy, sexism / misogyny / patriarchy, ableism and neuronormativity, queerphobia and heteronormativity, transphobia and cisnormativity, and so on? Those are just some of the many long-standing ‘cancel cultures’ manifested by institutionalised hierarchy. Normative mainstream discourses silence (‘cancel’) the lived experiences of those in marginalised communities, and data validating those experiences, by excluding them from mainstream discourses in the first place.
Some of the claims about ‘cancel culture’ are actually raising important critiques of certain styles of leftist activist cultures - critiques i share, and have written about elsewhere. But the ‘cancelling’ being done by ‘cancel culture’ needs to be put in the context of the sort of ‘cancelling’ i mentioned above - ‘cancelling’ which involves far more serious consequences for many people than those experienced by highly-privileged person not being able to broadcast their discriminatory/privileged opinions in any forum they want.
Comic: “I have been silenced!”
☙