On Thu, Apr 01, 2021 at 08:39:30AM -0400, Steve Litt wrote: > Didier Kryn said on Wed, 31 Mar 2021 12:07:50 +0200 > > > cancel-culture > > Please don't use that phrase, unless you're the second coming of Rush > Limbaugh. It's an ugly, Foxnews/right wing radio epithet for the > time-honored practice of boycotting, perhaps the last tool of power for > the average citizen.
This bears some discussion. In a boycott, I choose to not deal with a company (usually) and that's it. I might publicise that I'm boycotting a place and why, but that's the extent of it. (To that end, my family boycotts Amazon and Wal-Mart.) This notion of "cancelling" someone is different. It's aimed at an individual, and it generally seeks to do them harm - see them out of a job, for instance, beyond public humiliation. I don't have a settled opinion about this. I've certainly thought "serves them right" when someone who harms other people is called out, but what's different here is that it's someone I respect, and a situation where I don't think the evidence presented against him holds up. This is someone who has dedicated his life to making the world a better place in a particular way, not, by comparison, an elected official mocking his electorate as they suffer and freeze to death (literally) because the climate disaster is catching up to us. And yet, I have to recognize that the people carrying the torches and pitchforks feel like RMS has done harm various ways. They think this, and they take the opinions and records as being valid, even if I can look at most of the same "evidence" and point out holes and context that utterly changes its character. It's worth using the phrase "cancel culture" because it's very different from a boycott, and we need to understand what it does, and how, and if there are better options for redressing grievances and finding justice. And I don't know how to do this. It'd be easy if everyone cared about people and we took care of each other, if people didn't victimize each other, but that's not yet the world we live in. I think "cancel culture" is the result of someone speaking up and saying "this cannot stand" and other people taking up the cry, but it's awfully close to mob justice. But if we don't want mob justice, we need a judiciary. We don't have one set up to rule on moral or ethical stances. We hardly prosecute white-collar or corporate crime at all, nowadays. So, there's the problem. What are possible answers? -- Mason Loring Bliss ma...@blisses.org Ewige Blumenkraft! (if awake 'sleep (aref #(sleep dream) (random 2))) -- Hamlet, Act III, Scene I
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