Cancel Culture and the Free Speech Argument

And I stand by the point politics steered away from the politics thread at some point.

 

In a year of the coronavirus and the push for social justice reform there is no split between politics and anything else. It's an impossible distinction.

 

Well there's certainly room and a need here for how journalism addresses politics.

And how politics shapes journalism.

For example, I think the idea of 'cancel culture' is completely overblown. It's simply criticism by another name, reframed as part of the larger, for-profit persecution-industrial complex of the American right.

But I agree there are seismic shifts happening in journalism, too. Not all of them good.

But not all of them bad, either.

I figured a general thread allowing for that makes sense.

 

Did Jerry Falwell Jr. get canceled?

 

Fair enough.

 

Why you spouting this left wing Jeff Bezos crap? Shouldn't you be out burning down whats left of Portland with the rest of the antifa crowd? Come down here and burn down his 165 Million Dollar plantation he bought in SoCal last year with all his ill gotten gains.

 

As has been noted elsewhere - the "free speech" argument really doesn't apply here when those "cancelled" are paid for their speech. Companies have no obligation to continue to keep someone on their payroll who has demonstrated views or behavior that is at odds with that company represents. Free speech only means one can't be punished criminally for their words (with limited exceptions). The problem that many who have been "cancelled" are finding is that much of their career was/is built on their credibility/reputation - when it is shown that their image is largely fraudulent and not a true reflection of who they are, it's not a surprise that they are having a hard time getting "uncancelled" - there is no rehab program for bigotry, sexism, misogyny.

 

Yes.

 

May I subscribe to your newsletter, please?

 

Yes, because actions have consequences whether the person acting likes it or not.

 

It had to. The politics thread became the Trump thread.

 

Agreed. Though I would refer to it as the Criticize Trump thread.