Is woke and cancel culture wrong? Is it a question of scope? What is wrong with them? Shouldn't we, society, respond in some way to those who break society's rules?
Because of social media, anything that happens new gets amplified, but that isn't the whole story. I believe we, society, have actually been practicing woke and cancel culture for ages. It just hasn't been called that before. When someone in your circle of friends does something unforgivable, what often happens? I'm not talking about getting drunk and making an ass of himself at a party; that's great stuff to use to embarrass him forever. I'm talking about when a married man in his 50's has sex with his babysitter. He isn't punished by laws because there's no evidence or no one is willing to prosecute, but everyone knows it happened. He likely gets ostracized in some way. The scenarios are endless, but I think you all know what I'm talking about. When people do horrible things, society often punishes them even when the legal system won't. What is that but cancel culture? I've seen it myself dozens of times. Small towns thrive on such gossip and on occasion it can cause major disruptions in such small societies. People get divorced, lose their job, have to leave town...etc. That is cancel culture. Sometimes it's on an even smaller scale. If a guy has sex with another guy's girlfriend, he can be cast out of the group and loses social status. That's cancel culture. So why are we having so much difficulty with the same phenomenon when it happen on a larger scale?
Because of social media, anything that happens new gets amplified, but that isn't the whole story. I believe we, society, have actually been practicing woke and cancel culture for ages. It just hasn't been called that before. When someone in your circle of friends does something unforgivable, what often happens? I'm not talking about getting drunk and making an ass of himself at a party; that's great stuff to use to embarrass him forever. I'm talking about when a married man in his 50's has sex with his babysitter. He isn't punished by laws because there's no evidence or no one is willing to prosecute, but everyone knows it happened. He likely gets ostracized in some way. The scenarios are endless, but I think you all know what I'm talking about. When people do horrible things, society often punishes them even when the legal system won't. What is that but cancel culture? I've seen it myself dozens of times. Small towns thrive on such gossip and on occasion it can cause major disruptions in such small societies. People get divorced, lose their job, have to leave town...etc. That is cancel culture. Sometimes it's on an even smaller scale. If a guy has sex with another guy's girlfriend, he can be cast out of the group and loses social status. That's cancel culture. So why are we having so much difficulty with the same phenomenon when it happen on a larger scale?
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
~Julius Sumner Miller
