Yes, you read that right and yes, I’m serious; cancel culture is nothing to fear at all. In fact, it is the sign of complete and utter weakness if either a manor a movement fear being canceled. Sharpen your pitchforks, because I’m going to show how false of a Boogeyman this truly is.
First and foremost, cancellation is nothing more than the decision of the free markets. In case you’ve been asleep the last five years or so, let me catch you up to speed; social media companies are not obligated to give you a soapbox. Honestly, it is the height of entitlement to think that the Constitution gives you the unalienable right to a Facebook page. Seriously, what kind of 75 IQ nonsense is that? When start-up founders such as Da Zuck stand on a glossy stage underneath beaming spotlights and say things like public square, that is nothing more than a slogan and not a contractual obligation. The only things that Facebook owes you are what’s written in the Terms and Conditions that you clearly didn’t read. In case the foolhardy and spineless have forgotten: Facebook and X are for-profit companies that have fiduciary duties to shareholders. Thus, if you’re off spouting unsavory canary-isms and it’s causing these companies to lose money, then they can (and absolutely should) kick you off of their platforms. Similarly, TV channels refusing to run commercials for a certain product or book publishers avoiding certain ideals is nothing more than the free market running its course. The entire anti-deplatforming argument essentially boils down to the childish line of it’s not fair.
Truthfully, it is even possible to survive, and even continue to profit through, cancellation attempts. Seriously, if Bill Burr and Louis C.K. can survive cancellation attempts, then how hard can it possibly be? Dave Chapelle has found similar success dodging the pitchforks of the cancel mob as well. “Okay Dan, give me an example of someone who has dodged the cancel mob and isn’t a comedian. After all, you’re the first one to say that stand-up comedy makes one resilient!”. Alright, challenge accepted. From the world of politics, Matt Gaetz remains in the House of Representatives after he had sex with an underage prostitute. Want more proof? No? Too bad, you’re getting it anyways (shout out to Ben Roethlisberger); Alex Jones is still streaming his show, InfoWars, despite a pretty severe cancellation attempt. Thus, it absolutely is possible to survive a cancellation attempt and not lose everything, despite what Nicholas Cage’s new movie says.
Furthermore, at the risk of sounding like an alt-right apologist, I’ll pose the question; are men not men anymore? No, seriously; are we that afraid of that heinous and disgusting crime of saying something unpopular that we instead cower in fear? Don’t get me wrong, a little bit of pre-publish fear is a good sign, according to The Man Himself. That’s because it means that whatever you’re saying is a hard-hitting but necessary truth. However, mild fear is not enough of a reason to hold back. After all, the world needs your special sauce and not releasing said special sauce into the world for fear of a cancellation attempt is complete cowardice. Mankind is literally worse off if you decide to withhold your special sauce.
Besides, thanks to social media and the complete pussification of society (as evidenced by trigger warnings and safe spaces) cancellation attempts will become more frequent than Nigerian Prince e-mails. Thus, nearly everyone will deal with a cancellation attempt at some point (assuming this dumb trend continues), and thus the maneuver will become so watered down that it basically won’t mean anything at all. Logan Paul has plenty of cancellable material that could be used against him, yet he persists anyways. Some of it will inevitably resurface when he runs for President, though his opponent will undoubtedly be just as sullied as well. Thus, the over-use of the maneuver would die off; ruling out cancel-able candidates would leave basically nobody left to run for office.
It used to be that getting cancelled was only for the truly deplorable such as Harvey Weinstein. However, since J.K Rowling has been ‘cancelled’ over a series of tweets regarding Professor Snape’s sexuality (as dumb and contradicting to her own source material as they were) getting canceled will mean less and less. Punishing Weinstein for his abuses of power was the right thing to do, however punishing Bill Burr for making jokes about white males is just lame.
Besides, soft targets get cancelled far more often than their contemporaries who don’t give a flying fuck. The Proud Boys still stand, despite numerous attempts by the radicalized left to cancel them-ditto for the John Brown Gun Club, despite the misgivings of the alt-right. How many flying fucks do you think that Andrew Tate gives about getting cancelled? Similarly, those with impressively long resumes are significantly harder to cancel; try taking on Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford if you don’t believe me. Billionaires and other well-diversified savants are also pretty well insulated from cancellation; if you want proof, ask one of our Pride friends their thoughts on The Man Himself Peter Fucking Thiel. Truthfully, surviving a cancellation attempt has become a badge of honor in a way, not unlike a politician that survives an assassination attempt.
Also, it should go without saying that ideas themselves are much more difficult to cancel. Ideas that one finds unsavory do not simply go away when deplatformed, hence they are harder targets. Want to truly abolish an idea? Then do so at the debate stage, with pro and anti parties getting an equal chance to make their case. Yes, that involves formulating an articulate case and using logically sound counter-arguments to debunk your opponent. If that sounds like a lot of work and mentally taxing, that’s because it is and it’s supposed to be that way. Trying to banish an idea to the shadow realm prior to doing so is nothing more than censorship…you commie bastards.
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself”-Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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