I'm gonna copy/paste what I wrote on a 论坛 to zan lol
My criticism of liberal "cancel culture" specifically It’s a head-hunting mission centred on public humiliation, ostracism and guilt 由 association. It’s antithetical to so much of what the left should be fighting for. Ofc, it’s practical and necessary when it removes an abuser 或者 predator from a 圈, 圈子 of people. I take no issue with ostracising people for extreme, toxic behaviour. But when I think of 取消 culture in its current form, I think of micro-transgressions and microaggressions, rumours, smeared reputations. Cancelling someone for not championing the latest and most respectful terminology is not conducive to alliance-building 或者 solidarity. Like don’t get me wrong, sometimes I recognise the wrongdoing. But I do not condone the response.
Also, as someone who is deeply critical of the prison system, 取消 culture jars against the rehabilitation and transformative justice that I we should be fighting for. We need to see the root causes of societal ills. 取消 culture, meanwhile, breeds a mentality of guilty until proven innocent, and entrenches norms surrounding punitive punishment and retribution.
Some pop-liberals have adopted a binary mentality of us/them and good/evil. 取消 culture allows them to cling to black and white viewpoints, clothed in confirmation bias, and depersonalise complex human beings. Too often, cancelling someone is about clout – that is, furthering one’s own credentials as an activist 由 highlighting the comparatively poor behaviour of those around you.
Virtue signalling and blind ideological dogma are used to the detriment of humility, compassion and inclusivity. Recently, 150 artists, writers and academics – including Noam Chomsky, a leftist and one of the most cited scholars in the world - signed an
link condemning the weakening of public 辩论 due to 取消 culture. It’s a good read.
A few words on right-wing "cancel culture":
“Cancel culture” exacts just as much among conservatives too. In fact, “cancelling” is a neologism for an old custom; someone is perceived to have committed a transgression, and as a result, loses status and/or support among the public. A boycott, essentially. Ppl like Ben Shapiro like to pretend it’s some new liberal invention, while forgetting that right-wingers have been its main practitioners through most of history (when people transgressed moral “norms”). In living memory, employers regularly fired those suspected of being atheists, gays, 或者 socialists (see especially: the McCarthy era). In the modern day, conservatives have done shit like “cancel” NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for taking a knew during the national anthem – Trump told the league to "get that son of a 婊子, 子 off the field right now”, and many boycotted Nike because they dared to feaure Kaepernick in an ad.