[EDIT 2020-11-10: I wrote this in response to weeatquince’s original comment; it doesn’t apply nearly so strongly to the current version.]
It’s pretty clearly false that cancel culture is a term used only on the right. I’ve seen plenty of centre and centre-left people use it – it’s a term that resonates with many people. Most of the people I can think of who speak out most frequently against cancel culture are not conservatives. (That’s anecdote, but so is your claim that the term is mainly used on the right.)
Of course the people actively engaged in the thing don’t like the term, because it suggests that the thing they’re doing is bad. But this is a problem encountered in any situation where someone thinks someone else is doing something that is bad. If you forbid even giving the bad thing a name, you quite effectively prevent organised opposition to it.
Whatever “cancel culture” is when you taboo those words, it isn’t just boycotting organisations you disagree with – it carries a connotation of actively going after individuals. I agree that the evidence that this is a serious problem mostly takes the (somewhat shaky) form of a collection of examples, but given the nature of the thing I’m not sure how you would go about collecting more systematic evidence. What evidence would convince you that this is actually something to worry about?
Will, you are right that boycotting is not the right term for the phenomenon at hand. In addition to the reason you gave, a cancellation campaign mostly involves pressuring other organizations or people to boycott somebody. Plain old boycotting is one personal’s decision to not attend a talk, cancelling is demanding to stop the talk from even happening.
However, I think there is some truth to the point that cancel culture is not the most productive term when used in discussions over whether it is actually a bad thing, precisely because as you say it suggests that people engaging in it are doing something wrong and thus begs the question. For a somewhat symmetrical situation, consider proponents of cancel culture starting a discussion over “Should Organization A be a platform for Person B’s harmful views?”.
[EDIT 2020-11-10: I wrote this in response to weeatquince’s original comment; it doesn’t apply nearly so strongly to the current version.]
It’s pretty clearly false that cancel culture is a term used only on the right. I’ve seen plenty of centre and centre-left people use it – it’s a term that resonates with many people. Most of the people I can think of who speak out most frequently against cancel culture are not conservatives. (That’s anecdote, but so is your claim that the term is mainly used on the right.)
Of course the people actively engaged in the thing don’t like the term, because it suggests that the thing they’re doing is bad. But this is a problem encountered in any situation where someone thinks someone else is doing something that is bad. If you forbid even giving the bad thing a name, you quite effectively prevent organised opposition to it.
Whatever “cancel culture” is when you taboo those words, it isn’t just boycotting organisations you disagree with – it carries a connotation of actively going after individuals. I agree that the evidence that this is a serious problem mostly takes the (somewhat shaky) form of a collection of examples, but given the nature of the thing I’m not sure how you would go about collecting more systematic evidence. What evidence would convince you that this is actually something to worry about?
Will, you are right that boycotting is not the right term for the phenomenon at hand. In addition to the reason you gave, a cancellation campaign mostly involves pressuring other organizations or people to boycott somebody. Plain old boycotting is one personal’s decision to not attend a talk, cancelling is demanding to stop the talk from even happening.
However, I think there is some truth to the point that cancel culture is not the most productive term when used in discussions over whether it is actually a bad thing, precisely because as you say it suggests that people engaging in it are doing something wrong and thus begs the question. For a somewhat symmetrical situation, consider proponents of cancel culture starting a discussion over “Should Organization A be a platform for Person B’s harmful views?”.
Yeah, I’m sympathetic to this, and I accept the symmetry you suggest. I’m not sure to what extent it applies to this post, though.