I don’t think that’s what most people mean by “cancel culture”. They’re talking about people making efforts to have people fired etc. or various products be changed or cancelled etc. because of perceived transgressions. So I was wondering why you would not want such things to be termed as “cancel culture”, or felt that it would “misrepresent the goodwill of activists.” But you seem to be talking about something different than that? To me, you’re conflating the specific idea “cancel culture” and broader trends on the left, which is confusing. I’m not sure if it’s a terminology problem or if you’re making a broader argument.
That being said, whether you consider it as a positive or negative act, do you think it’s fair to refer to what I describe above (bolded) as “cancel culture”?
I don’t know about the phrase cancel culture, but SJW was definitely a positive term in the beginning. It was later used as a pejorative to mock the people who defined themselves as SJWs because some people considered them to be unwittingly amusing.
I knew SJW from looking it up in a similar conversation a few weeks ago. The same poster and I had covered ‘cancel culture’ just recently, so it was a strange one for them to ask:
Anyways, I think I should stop arguing with people who think every complaint against the left is just the right being unreasonable. Biological sex, anyone?
I don’t have any particular involvement in this issue. My only point is that I know for a fact that ‘social justice warrior’ was a badge of honor not so many years ago. It wasn’t made up by people on the Right.
Yup, me too; another poster tried to make the same point and I remembered it differently from grad school (and looked it up to double check, about 20 days ago apparently):
Much like the cancellation of biological sex wasn’t made up by the right; there are professors on the left teaching this. All these facts are annoying when they conflict with deeply held world views, though.
My involvement took a few years off in-between beginning my data collection and pointing out on Forumosa that Critical Theory is a bit of a misnomer (to the homer) about 6 weeks ago. Nice to be anonymous and well prepared this time.
