Imagine a world in which no unpleasant statements were ever uttered. A world in which one could never be insulted or mocked. A world in which anyone who ever dared to offend us would be immediately silenced and confined to an oubliette.
Ever since the advent of social media, many have attempted to create a simulacrum of this utopia through online censorship. This has taken the form of Silicon Valley tech giants intervening to prohibit the expression of certain opinions, or users actively campaigning to have other users removed from platforms. Many have taken it further, using the internet to track down offending parties and complaining to their employers. This attempt to destroy people’s livelihoods and reputations for causing offence has become known colloquially as ‘cancel culture’.
Typically, this is a tactic of those who identify as Left-wing, but the authoritarian instinct is common throughout humanity and is therefore not tied to any one specific political group. This week, we have seen many campaigners on the Right attempting to cancel those who have made unpleasant comments about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the murder of Corey Comperatore. The less imaginative have repeated the identical joke – “Make America Aim Again” – while others have expressed what appears to be genuine irritation that the gunman missed his target.
Grim stuff, obviously, but hardly unexpected. For years, we have seen that those who style themselves as being on “the right side of history”, who apply hashtags such as #BeKind and #LoveWins to their online bios, are often the most ferocious and unrelenting bullies. Their confidence in their own compassion seems to bear an inverse relationship to their actual capacity for empathy. The guise of virtue is naturally appealing for sociopaths seeking a cover for their cruelty.
Elon Musk has been so inundated with complaints that he felt obliged to post the following:
For some, there have been real-world consequences. A few days ago, an employee at Home Depot (a home improvement retailer in the U.S.) was filmed at work by a man questioning her about a recent Facebook post regarding the assassination attempt. She had written: “To [sic] bad they weren’t a better shooter!!!!!” The video went viral and she was fired.
Many of us will find the sentiments that she had expressed contemptible. Her words do not come close to the threshold for incitement to violence, but they do express an ugly flippancy about the sanctity of human life. Is this sufficient reason to see her lose her livelihood? This is likely a worker on a minimum wage and not somebody who can afford to be unemployed, let alone endure the ongoing stigma of such a targeted online campaign. Why could her detractors not have responded with criticism, or blocked her account, or simply ignored her? There’s a very good reason why the singer Nick Cave described cancel culture as “mercy’s antithesis”.
While emotions are running high the need to lash out is understandable, but that does not make it justifiable. I take the view that companies have no business monitoring the legal social media activity of their employees, and nor should they capitulate to demands to see them fired if others take offence. One might counter this view by pointing out that there are certain jobs in which a respectable public profile is essential. It would never occur to me to post any kind of endorsement of violence on social media, but if I did I would not expect to be hosting my show on GB News this weekend. It would be an immediate violation of my contract, one that I had willingly signed. This would not be a free speech matter.
But the vast majority of jobs do not in any way involve maintaining a public profile, and it seems grossly unfair to penalise people for mistakes that would in usual circumstances be almost instantly forgotten. The complainants often rationalise their position by claiming that no company would wish to employ “that kind of person”, and so by revealing their true colours these people deserve to lose their jobs. But this is to reduce humanity to a Disneyfied narrative of Goodies and Baddies. It is simply not the case that good people say good things and bad people say bad things. It is perfectly possible that the woman fired from Home Depot might later have regretted her words, perhaps written unthinkingly in the heat of the moment. But even if she hadn’t, is public shaming really the answer?
All of those calling for cancellations this week might want to ask themselves a simple question. If all the private messages you had ever sent were suddenly uploaded online for all to see, would you be happy with that? Are you really so pure that no statement you have made in the past could be weaponised against you?
In one of the more high profile cases, Jack Black has announced the cancellation of his Tenacious D tour after fellow band member Kyle Glass made a joke about the assassination at a show in Sydney. While blowing out the candles of a birthday cake on stage, he made the wish: “Don’t miss Trump next time.” Black later wrote on Instagram that he “would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form”. But can anyone honestly claim that this was the intention? It looks to me very much like a tasteless joke.
The expectation that human beings ought to be infallible is unrealistic and cruel. I do not approve of many of the comments I have seen about the violence of Saturday evening, but nor do I suppose that all of those making such comments are inherently evil. Even those who consistently and explicitly take joy in the suffering and deaths of their political opponents have the right to free speech. I do not ever wish to associate with such people, and so there is some benefit in their tendency to expose their sourness so willingly.
At heart, cancel culture is a form of revenge. Most people are rightly distressed by the spectacle of violence, and are resentful of those who appear to have no regard for human life, or are so wrapped up in their ideology that they have surrendered their basic empathy. The best response is criticism. There is nothing wrong with letting people know how we feel about them, particularly when they have behaved so badly. To leap directly to punishment and public shaming may make us feel better about ourselves, but its utility ends there. Either we are for cancel culture or we are against it. There is no middle ground.
Andrew Doyle is a writer, comedian and broadcaster who hosts the GB News show Free Speech Nation. He is the author of Free Speech and Why It Matters and The New Puritans. He created satirical Left-wing activist Titania McGrath, whose two books are Woke: A Guide to Social Justice and My First Little Book of Intersectional Activism. This article was first published on his Substack page. Subscribe here.
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Cancel culture is nothing new. Exhibit: A – Galileo Galilei. Excommunication was the Catholic Church’s version of cancel culture. Get excommunicated and family, friends would rebuff you, you lost your status in society and employment. Sound familiar?
In the days of Catholics v Protestants it was rife too, with either Protestants or Catholics being denounced – depending which bunch was ruling at the time – and sometimes spreading “misinformation” (aka heresy) had fatal consequences involving flames or a vat of boiling water.
At the Pope’s request, Galileo wrote a pamphlet, explaining his (or Copernicus’) heliocentric theory, written in the Socratic investigate style. Unfortunately, the questioner was made out to be very dim, and was recognisable as the Pope, himself. It didn’t go down well, especially as the Pope was having to deal with complicated matters of state at the time.
And Galileo could have done what everyone else had done, and circulated his thoughts in Latin, not Italian.
The problem with his theory was that it was wrong, the planets don’t circle the Sun, which harks back to the ancient theory of epicircles. The paths are elipses. In addition, he had no data, unlike Kepler.
So, he was more like an obnoxious Al Gore than an Einstein.
It’s happening everywhere no matter the context. People must not offend, insult or even present a counter-opinion without expecting to get cancelled or penalized in some way. Freedom of speech is non-existent in reality. Just one very petty example, which is literally nothing compared with how the Left/media are demonizing Trump;
”ROME, July 18 (Reuters) – A Milan court has ordered a journalist to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of 5,000 euros ($5,465) for making fun of her in a social media post, news agency ANSA and other local media reported.
The journalist, Giulia Cortese, was also given a suspended fine of 1,200 euros for a jibe on Twitter, now named X, in Oct. 2021 about Meloni’s height, that was defined as “body shaming”.
In a response to a Reuters story on the verdict, Cortese wrote on X on Thursday: “Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-journalist-ordered-pay-pm-meloni-5000-euros-mocking-her-height-2024-07-18/
They do indeed. Shocking from a so called right wing party. Meloni is proving, maybe, as sensitive as any other woman??
I find almost everything left wingers say distressing. Why aren’t my rights being respected?
I’ve seen it argued that the reason why the Tenacious D tour was cancelled was because the venues cancelled because the insurers hiked the premiums because they now expected trouble.
Of course cancel culture is wrong, it’s nasty, spiteful and often disgusting. What’s the answer though, to be nice, caring and forgiving to the people that partake of it, turn the other cheek? That’s working out well so far! I am all aboard for free speech, whomever it offends, but we have to take back the language and get back to a level field, call out the child castrators, the actual racists, the women haters. How do we move the Overton window back to sensible rational discourse? The only thing I can see is to play them at their own game.
Who decides what “sensible, rational discourse” is?
In my opinion, discourse that listens to both sides and doesn’t denigrate anyone for disagreeing i.e you don’t have to agree with what I’m saying but agree with my right to say it and counter it with facts not bile. Plus it will be nice when we can joke about things again.
🎯 Totally. Plenty of people on here that would apply to. I tend to get reduced to “an angry and aggressive woman” or criticised as being “boring”, “attention-seeking” and “obsessive” etc, by the very same people that bang on about free speech on here, or who proudly proclaim they’re “absolutists”. So they’re pro free speech whilst simultaneously criticising me for exercising my right to free speech, all because my opinions trigger them because they can’t hack being challenged, or they have nothing left in their arsenal other than playground insults or strawmen with which to counter. Such hypocrites are common. I think they’re 50% hilarious and 50% pathetic. It’s an ego thing, clearly.😁
The Left, they want their cake and eat it too!
This is the closest I come to social media. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why people choose to make “jokey” posts – one man’s joke is another’s damnable insult and the possible reaction by now is surely well known. Keep your silly comments to your friends and keep them verbal.
I’m wondering why you even bothered with this?
Can I just ask as a Farage fan, a luke warm one since 2020: do you think he would support a Nuremberg 2 style trials for all those parasites who supported the jabs, Drs on TV to celebs like Piers Morgan?
Andrew Bridgen’s comment answers that:
https://old.bitchute.com/video/sird3nBG5OBf/
Dear dear, I don’t know what to say about that!
Possibly the worst choice for the worst sort of government intervention.
“Nigel Farage calls for Tony Blair to become UK’s vaccination Tsar”
“Much as I don’t like Tony Blair he does get things done, he commands respect, he is seriously bright.”
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/nigel-farage-calls-for-tony-blair-to-become-uks-vaccination-tsar-215370/
Even though I’d rather hear high profile left wingers show themselves up for what they really are I have a question.
Is losing your job your using the wrong pronouns in the same category as saying you’re really disappointed that Donald Trump’s brains weren’t blown out live on TV?
Yes but in this case it’s quite delicious!
Let us have one victory please!!
Political violence is what results from the policies of the government, not from someone in
a band with songs such as “cock pushups” and “f*** her gently” making a quip.
In my mind this is key. I do not believe it was a ‘joke’ at all. The left mean it 100% when they say they want Trump dead, so then the ‘joke’ has to be considered within the context of intent, time and audience. The ‘joke’, and the subsequent gleeful reaction of the crowd, would encourage any other would be Trump assassin immensely. The problem we have is trying to define a rule for everything when some things should never be given rules; this is a symptom of a society that has lost its moral compass.
A lot of people (on Twitter for example) don’t seem to understand the difference between boycotting and cancelling. Boycotting is a totally acceptable freedom which every individual has, to make their own personal choice, while cancelling is taking away the freedom of others to choose differently.
For example, if a comedian or musician says something I don’t like, I have the right to not buy a ticket to their show for that reason. That’s boycotting. Obviously nobody is compelled to purchase a ticket for any show, so there’s nothing wrong with boycotting.
But if venue owners decide they don’t like something a comedian or musician says, and they therefore cancel the show, or protesters or pressure groups cause a show to be cancelled, that’s imposing their beliefs on others who think differently and taking away their freedom to attend if they choose.
So if Trump supporters don’t like Kyle Glass making a joke about killing Trump, it’s their absolute right to not buy a ticket, to boycott him and his band. But nobody should have the right to cancel him, to prevent him making a living, and to take away the freedom of others to choose differently.
Spot on.