What's the problem with "cancel culture"?

I haven’t been writing lately. I’ve had a lot on - nothing bad, but time consuming and mentally exhausting. It led to some writer’s block. 

However, I just read Megan McArdle’s Washington Post article “The Substack controversy’s bigger story.” I don’t feel like linking to it. I do feel like I have something I need to say. Some questions I need to ask.

Why do the people out there criticising “cancel culture” fight so hard to defend the right to misinform, offend and hurt people who are doing nothing to them? Why do they fight so hard for “diversity” in places where their so-called “conservative” views are under threat, then fight so hard against diversity when it means accepting the rights of people who make them uncomfortable (gay, transgender or Black people who want to vote… or live)? 

Let’s start with some simple facts. No one is entitled to any particular job or a public platform or a megaphone for their views. Case in point, I will be shocked if more than a hundred people see this post. Much as I might like to go viral, I am not entitled to a million followers. No one has a universal right to fame. From experience, I can tell you millions of voices go unheard. 

Twitter, Facebook, Substack, etc. don’t owe anyone an account. As private companies,they should have the right to decide if someone is using their service to harm others and disallow that privilege as they deem necessary. 

Free speech is misleading. Free speech means I can’t be arrested for saying Mitch McConnell is a black-hearted, lying turtle masquerading as a man who has systematically destroyed American democracy. But no one has an obligation to amplify that belief. No company MUST publish it. And my freedom to say it is curtailed by Mitch’s right to sue me if he feels he’s been harmed by what I’ve said and can prove he is NOT evil turtleman. 

What views are these cancelled people espousing? What are the anti-cancel-culture so-called “conservatives” fighting for?  They want the right to share lies, to spread insults and to hurt people. Hardly the stuff of a strong democracy. 

Do not be fooled when they say society is suffering because cancel culture denies us diverse opinions and makes people subject to “woke” far-left perspectives. Dive deeper. 

Their use of the term “woke” in this derogatory manner actually refers to the rest of us defending things like equality and the right to life for the people who are actually here and alive now (as opposed to a few cells in a petri dish). 

Let’s take a specific example: Gina Carano, formally of The Mandalorian.  I have a son who has done maybe forty to fifty auditions without being cast in a role as an actor. There are millions of talented actors out there who don’t get roles. There are thousands of actors fired from roles for any number of reasons. 

Is Gina Carano entitled to her role on The Mandalorian? Of course not. There are hundreds of equally talented actors who can play that character. Carano holds controversial (or let’s just call them what they are: false and hurtful) views. If she kept them to herself, no one would have known and she wouldn’t have been fired. 

But she has risen to some degree of fame because of her role. That is a privilege not a right. And she chose to use that fame to share her lies and ridiculous opinions: she undermined public health by criticizing masks and vaccines. She said the election was fraudulent, even though it was demonstrably, factually not. She insulted transgender people. And the breaking point was when she claimed holding her pathetic positions was like being a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Now, I love The Mandalorian. But I don’t have to watch it. I don’t like Gina Carano. I think she’s an idiot and don’t want my son to see and admire her for being a successful actress in a series he enjoys. She isn’t entitled to be rich and famous and I certainly don’t want my money to support her.  If she had not been fired, I had no plans to watch The Mandalorian again. 

Disney, as a private business, has the right to do what is in the best interest of its franchise. If it fears reputational damage from one of its stars and can see financial harm from continuing to employ her, it is a very reasonable decision for the company to fire her. 

She doesn’t have a right to that role. And if she’s mad she lost it, maybe she should spend more time thinking about WHY people don’t like her opinions and less time whining about how oppressed she is as a rich, white, famous actress. 

These aren’t political persecutions because these aren’t political questions. I didn’t want to stop watching Gina Carano because I found out she supports tax cuts rather than investment in education. It wasn’t because she believes the private sector is more efficient at delivering services than government is. 

• These are ethical questions of decency. Her willingness to show respect to transgender people who have done her no harm. 

• These are moral issues of equality - Black people need to raise awareness because they shouldn’t have to fear being shot by police while they sleep in their own homes. 

• These are civic questions of honesty - the election was fair, Trump lost, the majority of Americans do not want him or his followers to run the country. If they fight those results, that’s treason.

• These are safety questions of health - masks, vaccines and social distance help save lives and stop the pandemic.

Shortly after being fired, Gina Carano was given a role in a film. Fine. But I have the right never to watch the film or any other produced by Ben Shapiro. 

So-called “conservatives” feel aggrieved because people want to silence them. But the question we should keep asking them is to consider WHY we don’t want to hear them. 

• Why should we listen while they gaslight us (Antifa attacked the Capitol)? 

• Insult us (libtards)? 

• Endanger us (anti-masks)? 

• And ignore fundamental inequalities in America (counter protests to BLM)?

We can see the harm they cause. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are largely responsible for creating Trump’s grievance party. Millions of Americans falsely think their lot in life is worse than it could be because of “liberals” and “others” (minorities and immigrants) stealing their opportunities, cheating at the polls and changing their world in ways they don’t like.

Quick aside - hey Fox News,  the reason many of us say happy holidays is because there are people who don’t celebrate Christmas. It is not an insult to Christmas, it is simply an intellectual acknowledgement that saying Merry Christmas to someone who isn’t Christian is like saying happy birthday to someone six months after their actual birthday. Not everyone is like you… and that’s good. Remember that diversity thing you’re super keen on when it comes to cancel culture?

Those of us who support limiting the reach of voices who spread lies and the denigration of others do so because of the evident harm that is caused by it. 

The attack on the Capitol was committed by people who believe they love the country more than the rest of us. But they believed the lie that the election was stolen from them because they heard that lie repeated so many times. And they have been told by people on television for years that “liberals hate America.” They have been lied to so much that they are happy to believe the propaganda spread by Putin, America’s enemy, rather than their own country’s Intelligence Department. This is dangerous stuff. 

Violence against Asian people has increased because of Trump’s constant insults and his lies about the “China” virus.

Words have power, lies have consequences. That is why we don’t want to see them spread in the public sphere. 

I haven’t heard anyone calling for the cancellation of conservatives like David Brooks or Michael Gerson. Or even Megan McArdle.

Respectful dialogue from differing viewpoints is to be encouraged. But that’s NOT what cancel culture has attacked. Cancel culture is trying to ensure people are not able to lie, to insult, to hurt and harm the public with impunity. 

If you are in the public eye, you can’t criticize mask wearing and vaccines during a pandemic because it leads to illness and death. You can’t make fun of people who don’t look like you or love like you without facing a backlash because it undermines equality. You can’t lie about an election for the same reason you can’t shout fire in a theater. 

It is not asking much to set the bar for public figures at truth and dignity. If they are unkind and unintelligent enough to fail at that, they don’t deserve their position in the public sphere. 

No one is entitled to have their voice heard by millions - it isn’t a right. No one is entitled to any particular job. 

So when you hear people railing against cancel culture remember this… Cancel culture is not:

• A culture. It is a response to the amplification of harmful lies, hate speech and misinformation.

• A movement guilty politicians should use to hide from their own misdeeds. I’m looking at you Governor Cuomo. Your critics are not “cancelling you” - they are asking you to step down because you violated the trust of your constituents - specifically the women you harassed. 

• About diversity in politics. It is about setting a standard of decency and honesty for the public forum, which should not be too much to ask. 

Megan McArdle, you will never see this post because I’m not a famous writer like you, but I say spend more time thinking about WHY we want those so-called “conservative” voices silenced - think about the lies and insults they spread. Think about the hurt, the damage they cause. 

Instead of bemoaning the fact unknown members of the public have found a way to get famous people (woe is them) fired for polluting the public sphere with insults and dishonesty, consider the injury those of us who aren’t conservatives have suffered at the hands of Fox Fiction and Trump’s tweets: told we aren’t patriots, our votes shouldn’t count and even what we see with our own eyes isn’t true. 

When conservatives want to support equality and dignity for all people and when they deal in a world of factual information, they will be welcomed on any media platform. 

Until then, may the private companies in charge continue to have the courage to insist on a basic standard of decency from people who wish to use their company to communicate to the world.