What's wrong with Woke

[Spongebob]

I don't like cancel culture.  Imagine if your every action were to be scrutinized by the internet, and the first time you do or say something that doesn't meet a purity test, people actively try to destroy your life.

In real life, bad behavior can be called out by the people who it actually affects.  In cancel culture, it is called out by people who it doesn't affect.  The average Joe is judge, jury and executioner.  There is no room for tolerance or a different life experience.

Cancel culture is no different than the intolerance of religious zealots.

Lets examine that.  Let's say a white TV personality is at a party, has a few drinks and decides it would be funny to put on black face and sing "Jump Jim Crow".  There are black people in attendance who record the song and dance and post on social media.  Of course the next day its everywhere and there are calls for him to be cancelled, meaning no more TV show.  Who is intolerant here?  Who is wrong here?  Is firing him from his TV show going too far?  I'm not advocating so much as asking, how much punishment is enough?

Now if this occurred 25 years ago when the person was in college, and this information just comes out now, is the punishment different?  Is a public apology warranted?  

I've set up a situation that's actually happened, so I'm curious what everyone thinks the reaction to this should be.  I consider this situation in very bad taste but not a serious crime, but what if it were more serious?  What if this TV personality was known for seriously mistreating black employees or neighbors?  I'm looking for when it becomes something worthy of serious social punishment.  Surely you have a line that can be crossed that constitutes more than just bad taste.

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 And there’s also the case of August Ames, who made a tweet about a scene she dropped out of because the guy recently did gay porn, and got enough harassment for it that she… ended up doing something more permanent than retiring. There’s honestly enough of either the “getting a lot of horrible shit for doing a lot of horrible shit” or “one bad takes gives people an excuse to be bastards” categories that I cannot, in good conscience, think about it in just one way.

That said, I do think that the majority of people who whine about it are mostly doing it as a pretext to complain about not being allowed to do whatever the fuck they want without consequences. I remember an old user named Agnostico outright stated that he hoped to free himself of the shackles of morality, and I can even remember watching Hannah Reloaded take on a John Doyle video where he ends up outright saying he wanted to be able to do whatever he wanted without consequences:

I plucked out these comments because it hits on a salient point.  Let's say (as apparently some people no this forum feel) we jettison all constructs for social feedback and everyone is allowed to say and do anything they wish without consequences.  All calling out people for horrible language is banned and punishable by death, so sayeth Trump.  Short of assaulting someone, you can do or say any damn thing you want and fuck all to anyone who doesn't like it.  Is that even possible in a civil society?  What would be the result?  I can say for sure that if I said the right things about the right people, I would get my head bashed in.  And would the violent responder get punished for retaliating to my words?  Is that a desired outcome, a society that is based on your ability to violently respond to commentary?