I want to define cancel culture because I think people are equating many different things that are not cancel culture.
If you cancel or criticize someone, for example, that is not a legal ban on their behavior; that is social ostracization; sanction for behavior or opinion. Not legal sanction, not banning people, not trying to jail people, just people not wanting to hang out with you.
Cancellation can range from people criticizing you to people wanting to not hang out with you, to people firing you, to people deciding no one can hire you. It’s a whole range of activity.
There are basically three generalized perspectives on cancel culture.
One: Any violation of any taboo ought to be treated with the harshest possible measure of cancellation, ruining people’s lives for any level of rhetorical transgression.
Two: No one should ever be canceled for any reason. So no criticism, no…
