SMH article on cancel culture

[StrangeLookingParasite]

I thought about whether this was relevant or not. If people think it isn't, I'll ask for the thread to be deleted.

Nick Cave on cancel culture

[NearlyGranny]

Merciless is a word I hadn't thought of to describe the treatment of GC people online and in public life, but it certainly fits!

And the parallels between cancel culture and a punitive religion without grace or hope of redemption ring very true, sadly.

[Imnobody4]

"A force that finds its meaning in the cancellation of these difficult ideas hampers the creative spirit of a society and strikes at the complex and diverse nature of its culture," Cave wrote.
I really do like Nick Cave.

[highame]

"We are a culture in transition, and it may be that we are heading toward a more equal society — I don’t know — but what essential values will we forfeit in the process?"

How about women's rights

[queenofknives]

That's great. He's written about this before (and been cancelled for it). I agree, it is the opposite of merciful, empathetic or compassionate when society becomes so punitive and extreme.

[Beamur]

Beautifully expressed. He's right, it's a truly stifling movement.

[nauticant]

moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption. It has become, quite literally, bad religion run amuck

Bad religion is where we're at. Look at Damian Barr and how, no matter how transphobic his comments might have been, he's broadly immune from the type of cancel culture currently going on.

This isn't a culture to cancel bad people. It's a sorting hat of working out the hierarchy of who can abuse whom with impunity, and identifying the "whom" who must be silent.