Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Is Concern Over “Cancel Culture” Elitist?
Among those on the Left, I’ve seen a great deal of dismissal over conservative concern over cancel culture, deeming the worry “elitist.” Only comedians and journalists are being canceled, so why is the average conservative so up-in-arms about the widening practice?
It’s an interesting argument, and one I’ve spent the day chewing over. I’m not personally concerned about “getting canceled,” because there’s no way to cancel a conservative writer and homeschooling mother. That doesn’t mean I won’t stop decrying cancel culture, because the mob’s bell could come for any of us. But for many other conservatives working out in the world, “cancellation” is a concern, though it looks far different.
One of my favorite Twitter follows, @PoliticalMath, recently locked his Twitter account. I can’t post his tweets here, because the account is locked, but I will copy and paste one of his last tweets explaining why he won’t be nearly as active on Twitter, and why the only Twitter users able to see his tweets are people who were already following:
Well… this is fun. A couple days after I wrote my piece about how conservatives don’t want to speak up due to severe repercussions in the workplace, my Meetup account got flagged for “abusive behavior”. And now I can’t register for professional events that I need for my job.
This could very well be a coincidence. An amazingly ironic coincidence that falls exactly in line with the actual malice I’ve experienced previously. And guess what: It’s going to work.
If I have to make a choice between talking about politics under a pseudonym and being able to do my job, I’m going to pick my job. Sure would be nice if there was some kind of legislation or regulation out there to protect me. Oh well! Sucks to be me!
Alright, looks like another one of my professional accounts is getting reported for abuse so I’m out. I’ll probably be back after we get our big product out, this is just too much distraction at this point. Have fun, y’all.
This is what “cancellation” looks like for the average Joe: intimidation. He linked to a piece he wrote recently about the topic, where he argues
Last week, David French issued a call to courage, urging conservatives to stand up for their beliefs even at the risk of falling victim to the PC mob. In response I noted that for “regular” folks — those with normal jobs and friends to lose — the risk of speaking out far exceeds the benefit…
…
Most of us, liberals and conservatives alike, just want to do good work. We don’t want to talk politics at work. We don’t want to alienate people. We don’t want to be the annoying in-law at Thanksgiving, ready with 15 hard-hitting talking points to take down the other side.
To give a more concrete example: What should we do about our companies’ increasingly annoying “diversity” initiatives? Just practically speaking, what would be the forum for that? The company Slack? Random emails to colleagues? Should we stand up at the company meeting to interrupt the HR manager in the middle of her presentation to voice our concerns? Should we object to the company’s Pride events, noting that our Muslim and Christian colleagues tend to get awfully quiet when these things roll around?
There is something about disrupting the workplace in this way that is deeply anti-conservative. We don’t want to pick battles that mark us as trouble employees. The time might come to fight those important battles, and we should make sure we’re fighting the ones we win or the ones we can’t avoid. Otherwise, we’ll be long gone before we get to fight them.
Conservatives aren’t just concerned about cancel culture because of the possibility that the bell may toll for us, but because we know that the bells toll in very different ways for conservatives and liberals. Take, for example,
Anyone else noticing a pattern with @nytimes staff? pic.twitter.com/Tt14x975TG
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) September 18, 2019
Both of these Times writers have apologized for their past racist tweets and kept their jobs. So have others at the Times; there are no consequences for being racist, but only for liberals. Meanwhile, a $1,000 to a political cause that won (Mozilla’s CEO Brendan Eich, Prop 8 in California) can cost you everything. Which is precisely why conservatives won’t let “cancel culture” go unchecked.
Published in General
The bell tolls differently, and the rules are different.
the Left has rationalized this as “exposing hate” therefore, if someone is found to be hateful they must be drummed out of society. For the Left, these are transgressions and youthful mistakes or their views have “evolved” since then and are given a pass.
the kid from Saturday Night Live said bad things, and I don’t necessarily mind him not getting the job, but it was dirty pool. It was rationalized as “no one has a right to Saturday Night Live.” If that sounds familiar, it’s the same excuse they gave to us about Brett Kavanaugh. No one has a right to a SCOTUS seat, and the softer, “you know, you should really go for a candidate that’s less problematic” when, in actuality if there is nothing problematic it will be created.
I’ve had someone clone my email address, write racist screeds, put them on a forum I used to use and send them to my employers as “proof” that I was a white supremacist.
On another message board, I’ve had things taken out of context and edited to “show” how I’m a homophobe and racist as well.
These are nasty people who have rationalized that they are doing good. It’s sociopathic in nature, and wrapped up in “I just thought you’d like this kind of information” positive motives.
Whether they’re making it up or not
I work in the national media. Some day when I retire I will use my real name. That day is not today…
David French does not appear to care at all. And he is a big name for THE conservative flagship magazine.
Retirement is definitely a benefit for this conservative. I’m not on Facebook or Twitter. And I won’t shut-up. I’m so sorry for those who can’t simply speak up and express their views. The Left has no idea how ugly it’s become.
So is self employment, though I guess I self-censor on Facebook. Not sure how much of that is a concern about alienating clients and how much is just boredom with all the inane bickering. Probably a bit of both.
I agree with the sentiment. They can’t cancel everyone. But David French sure seems like a guy that capitulates to the twitter mob.
Give em time.
I am suitably incendiary over at RushBabe49.com, and I have had no repercussions anywhere. It’s my own blog that I have had for 11 years, and even the libs at WordPress haven’t paid me any mind. I have even posted some of their ridiculous “calls to action” and commented negatively, and that aroused no angry comments at all-only supportive comments from followers.
What makes you say that about French? I know he advocates for civility but also for courage in the face of the mob. I don’t see how he’s capitulating.
I am not sure that any societal group, including stay at home moms, is exempt from this phenomenon. Those of you who believe the majority of knitters in the world to be little old grandmas flopping around in their Birkenstocks and drinking chamomile tea will have no idea of the vitriol and venom that is being spewed in the name of wokeness, as small business owners (most of them women) attempt to show their support of Ravelry’s edict that Trump supporters are “undeniably” supporters of white supremacy and have no place on the site or in decent company anywhere, and as they post desperate messages on their Facebook, Instagram, and website pages stating that they “stand with Ravelry,” following it up with virtue-signaling about how inclusive they are, just before they say they’d really prefer not to do business with those who disagree with them, because that’s not being inclusive, that’s supporting racism.
The intimidation factor is strong in the bullies, and it’s just pitiful sometimes to watch their victims struggle to apologize enough, grovel enough, or abase themselves enough to win favor. Many who previously posted their support for LGBT rights, or transgender rights, or who’ve always considered themselves fairly with-it and woke (most knitters heave distinctly to port, in my experience), can’t understand why their squirming and abject self-flagellation isn’t winning them any points with the currently identified BIPOC victim narrative (Black (and) Indigenous People of Color). Comments like, “your apology is meaningless,” “your apology is insincere,” “your apology is just empty words,” abound. And, believe it or not, these poor people take this in good part, and come back next time with an even more cringeworthy attempt to show they understand how unworthy they are. (In our house, we call this “The Dobby Speech,” after the miserably little house-elf in Harry Potter who blames himself for everything and constantly bangs his head on the wall.) Interestingly, particular nastiness seems to be visited on the men who actually are G or B or T, and who often seem to be pushing back on the more extreme manifestations of this lunacy.
People are seeing their businesses affected, sometimes in substantial ways, because they can’t demonstrate enough woke creds to satisfy people they thought were their friends. It’s truly awful.
Ravelry’s web traffic is considerably down, as shown on Alexa, but that’s not even necessarily good news, as it’s the prime resource on the web for all these little businesses to sell their knitting patterns, tools or classes, so there are probably follow-on effects to their vendors.
To this point, there appear to have been relatively few vendors and/or businesses who’ve said “nuts to you!” and told Ravelry to take a long walk off a short pier, because the subsequent visitation of viciousness directed at them is so vile. It’s horrible.
Good thing that, like most serious knitters, I’ve got shelves of books and patterns, and a yarn stash accumulated over half-a-century that just doesn’t quit. I was quite surprised to find this photo of my guest bedroom on the web:
Reinforcing my opinion that David French is a pogue in the culture/politics war.
And yes, I’ll say it, just like he was in Iraq.
The only answer, every time, is full volume Joan Rivers: “How Dare You, don’t you dare call me…” And screen capture / record everything. And target vulnerable, smaller leftist controlled platforms for destruction. They must be destroyed as examples to others. If every “Christian” woman, say, cut off Ravelry, rather than continuing to belly up for another bowl of porridge, I suspect Ravelry would collapse, to be replaced by a far more truly respectful and diverse entity.
One of the first people I remember being fired over a tweet was Justine Sacco. She was not famous before her unfortunate tweet went viral. But she tweeted, got on a plane and before she landed her life was destroyed.
If it could happen to Justine Sacco, it could happen to anyone.
We forget how quickly the Nazi’s were able to silence almost everyone and they rose in a broken economy after a destructive war that had crushed Germanys historical rise. We’re seeing the same psychological phenomena in the midst of prosperity with the only victims products of their failures but being blamed on historical processes that actually worked to produce prosperity in the first place. If we don’t fight this with everything, we lose permanently. There is no coming back. Just contrast the size, power and influence of the Washington bureaucracy now with what it was before progressives took over.
These little bastions of conformity, aka “Nazi Nodes of Naughtiness”, are going to insulate themselves right off the face of the planet. Essentially, if cancel culture seeks to exclude those who do not conform, then fine – there’s plenty of opportunity to do the things you want to do, elsewhere.
What gets ugly is when it’s attached to your job. I think of it in this way: Who was one of the most detestable of little kids you knew, when growing up?
Answer: The kid who told on all the other kids to the teachers or grownups.
That’s who these people are. Rats. Rats who wallow in filth and thrive on it. To throw it back to prison culture (as I do in approximately 78% of my Ricochet comments), rats are one step higher on the prison respect ladder than pedophiles.
That’s not where you want to be, from a “look over your shoulder” perspective in D block.
As much as I don’t hold with the “cancel culture”, I kind of hope this triggers a reset in how people use social media which I believe is the primary cause of the lack of respect and decency in our society.
I am old enough to have lived during the period where there was no social media so if you wanted to communicate your opinions to someone you would actually have to talk to them; and if you did this in the way that many do on social media you would risk getting punched in the face. I’ve been punched in the face (it hurts) so I may be inclined to temper how I communicate to someone.
But along came Twitter and under a pseudonym the @MrPotatoHeadsButtHole can spout any sort of indecent and offensive crap.
You have a right to say what you want, but you don’t have a right to be free from the consequences of what you say.
I hope businesses are waking up to the fact it’s dangerous to rely on Facebook or Twitter for their advertising and sales.
Isn’t “cancel culture” really just bullying?
Anybody notice that poor people don’t even really use the word “elitist.” (I mean, if we wanna get technical that’s probably noteworthy.) But everybody cares when their favorite programming gets canceled.
I think it’s more like something the mafia might try to do. “Nice job you have there. Shame if you lost it.”
I mostly agree, but ‘deplatforming’ and losing your job seem to be among these consequences.
This is correct. It’s one thing to be yelled off Twitter; it’s quite another to be called to the HR office for skipping the annual Diversity and Inclusion Picnic.
Social conformity is a funny thing. All one needs to create the illusion of consensus is a small number of vocal proselytizers and a large number of go-with-the-flow types. Most people merely want to get along, and they publicly adopt whatever positions they understand to be “nice” or “normal,” even if they question those positions in private.
In other words, the corporate world is rife with preference falsification. With a little luck, the enforced orthodoxy will collapse. But luck is in short supply these days.
No wonder we did not sleep in the guest bedroom last July…. 😁
I think a lot of people think French doesn’t take into account that people may have bad motives, so his first instinct is to see whether the accusation is warranted versus the way in which we came to find out about the “controversy” to then see if it warranted. But this isn’t a problem isolated to French, if it even is his problem.
On the left, if Project Veritas has video of Planned Parenthood selling body parts, well first it’s a source fail and second if there’s a second missing, it’s obviously been edited to give a false narrative. Even if it’s true, the first instinct is to get a narrative which truth has to work against, Kamala Harris will help pass laws to make Project Veritas criminals, etc.
On the right, if a bunch of high school kids are shown smirking in front of a Native American, our punditry tends to have to deal with the facts as given by the narrative provided, disavow behavior that’s making us look bad, etc. all before we get an unedited tape and facts about the activist, for which our new narrative gets about 20 percent as much traction and not as much vocal criticism or cries for punishment to those who perpetrate the fraud.
It’s the older brother connundrum: You get in trouble for what you do, but if your little brother is a brat, it also reflects poorly on you if you do something about it because you’re more responsible and know better.
You know through your grace and forgiveness you’re a better person, and using the levers of power isn’t conservative. But it doesn’t solve the problem that your younger brother is being a jerk.
The fact that these pundits immediately adopted the left-wing narrative and tried to be the first to throw the kids under the bus is evidence of cowardice. They did not adopt a “wait and see” stance to allow the full story to come out. Under the bus these kids went. This is a cowardly act, an attempt to save one’s own skin, and it points to the complete absence of the virtue of loyalty which I’ve been banging on about lately.
We don’t need any more pundits whose first impulse is to distance themselves from the people whose side they’re allegedly on. That speaks of someone who is motivated entirely by the promotion of the self.
Elitist?! It’s the opposite of elitist.
The elite after getting cancelled can still find avenues through which to communicate.
Where does Engineer Joe or Accountant Sally go after they get fired and banished from their professional associations? Where do they (and Hair Dresser Jane and Plumber Don) go when the state licensing agencies revoke their occupational licenses (as is no doubt coming in the near future)?
Concern about “cancel culture” is widespread because Joe and Sally and Jane and Don recognize that if the elites pushing “cancel culture” take out their fellow elites, “cancel culture” will have even less difficulty taking out Joe and Sally and Jane and Don.
And I don’t want to hear anymore about courage from cowards.
The Justin Trudeau kerfuffle will be enlightening as another example of the effort to double-standard the cancel culture. Trudeau will likely follow the Ralph Northam strategy and wait for the situation to blow over, and his woke allies both in Canada and in the media on both sides of the border will be OK on letting it blow over, since many of those same people are deeply angry that Al Franken was held to the same standards they want people on the right to be held to. (And aside from her obvious abandoning of any political convictions she supposedly had to pander for votes, the main thing that caused Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign to be DOA from Day 1 was the pop culture left was irate at her forcing Franken to resign for his #MeToo violation.)
Cancel culture thinks because those doing the canceling are so kind, caring, compassionate, and simply superior forms of human life, their transgressions aren’t really that, because they’re so good about everything else. And as long as they can get away with being held to a lower standard than everyone else, cancel culture as a political weapon will continue to exist. It only dies when its supporters are forced to face the reality of Mutually Assured Destruction, and mentally they’re nowhere near that point yet.
Drew, I think that you make a good point about cowardice, but I think that there’s something else operating in these circumstances. There’s a sizeable portion of the conservative pundit group who share a part of the Obama/Clinton “bitter clingers” and “deplorables” view of other conservatives, especially working class conservatives and, perhaps to a lesser extent, social conservatives.
I think that this attitude predated Trump, but the Trump phenomenon revealed it.
So on many issues, a subset of conservative pundits seem to agree with the prejudices and disdain of the radical Left.
No question about that in my mind at all.