The Other Cancel Culture

By whom do you more fear cancellation?

Image this Twitter poll:

• By what group do you fear more some version of a meaningful cancellation?

  • The Left

  • The Right

  • Both Equally

Cancellation risk can differ both in probability as well as in severity. I leave the condition of “meaningful” to the interpretation of the responder/listener.

The right demands compliance and in extreme cases will resort to shunning. The left also demands compliance, but in the extreme they demand crucifixion. Certainly there are exceptions where each extreme is more like the other as I describe them, but generally, I believe the tendencies hold.

In my world I think I fear cancellation from the right more than from the left. I live and work more so in right circles than left. Therefore, this tends to be my in-group or at least I tend to be adjacent to the right more often than the left. In both cases I am worried about those members of each group who are inclined towards cancellation initiation and encouragement. To be clear most members of the left and the right are not actively part of cancel culture. However, there is a large group within each that are willful participants or at least they acquiesce in the activity.

For me personally, I do think any cancellation from the left would be relatively harmless unless accepted by a broader group that is outside the left-right extremes. That gets at a thought I’ve had about a different take on cancel culture.

The Other Cancel Culture

I would like to argue that there exists a third type of cancel culture. Namely, when non-elites in prestige cultures speak out of turn and are then cancelled within that specific culture if not a larger superset.

Consider a professional who is caught/overheard/accused of denigrating an elite within his profession. Or consider a so-called “white-collar” middle manager who expresses opinions not in keeping with the zeitgeist—not just of his organization but even the community within which it operates.

There is low tolerance in upper-society circles for heterodox thinking. In corporate cultures there is disdain for behavior or opinions that question authority or break norms. And in these as in all subcultures there are many taboos.

This particular cancel threat is one I actually worry about for me personally. As someone who is both outspoken as well as opinionated, this worry seems appropriate.

I have many friends who do not face this risk and cannot relate to it at all. In their world speaking one’s mind might be distasteful, might cost them friendships in extreme but rare cases, and might make business opportunities dwindle slightly, but it cannot cost them their job or severely limit their social upward mobility.

A partial list of those not subject to this type of cancel threat generally includes:

• The independently wealthy either when this status substitutes for being a member of the prestige culture or when this status is big enough not to be cancellable

• Those in professions that are sometimes called working class or blue collar

• Sole proprietors or small business professionals with the exception of when they interact with prestige cultures

• Children and the elderly

• Spouses and retirees excepting again when they interact with prestige cultures

• And, importantly, elites within prestige cultures like corporate organizations, sophisticated nonprofits, country clubs, etc.

Perhaps it is just part of the package that those in the prestige cultures have to put up with censorship and judgement in this manner. People care about what I say and think in ways they don’t care regarding my plumber or elderly neighbor.

Still, the intolerance is stymieing and unfair.