Adam Davidson has a question:

Can one of you believers in cancel culture just write one piece that gives evidence and doesn't just speak to a feeling you have?
Maybe some data that helps your readers know the size and scale of this problem? Also, some examples of people actually fired?
This is a very trolly wording designed to elicit the response it got. Of course there are people who have been cancelled. But when you look at his follow ups, I think it reveals something interesting.

The core issue, I think, is definitional. What is "cancel culture?"
In my world of elite media, I think it's defined something like: "there is a growing trend among left-leaning young people to respond with outsized outrage to anyone saying things about gender or race"
2/

So, I think it is very defined, in my world, as:
- left-leaning.
- young.
- about race and/or gender issues.
- seeks to punish people disproportionately for expressing views.
- involves a mob-like effect.
3/
So basically, this is the definition that Fox News would have you believe. That “cancel culture” is about whacky leftists trying to enforce woke ideology at the barrel of a gun. But Adam Davidson does not work for Fox News. There is no reason for him to subscribe to this idiotic and unhelpful definition.
There are lots of people on the left who engage in cancel culture. But there are lots of people on the right that do as well!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to
Calm Down
to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.