Happy Hour Topic: The Newly-Christened “Cancel Culture”

Though the concept is not new, our media has been more-recently deliberating the cost and benefits of “cancel culture”. For those of you who are unaware of this concept, the idea is that if a public figure or a business makes a statement or behaves a certain way (considered unethical or tasteless by some), a social momentum ignites with the goal of muting, nullifying, and/or shaming the offender for that opinion or behavior. Some well-known examples of this are offenders called out in the Me-Too Movement such as Harvey Weinstein, R Kelly, and Louis CK. Another example of this, is Colin Kaepernick, who has not played in the NFL since 2016 due to a cultural “cancellation” by the far right. Often the purported objective of Cancel Culture is accountability and a higher standard for public figures. Many critics suggest that cancel culture is a means of bullying or humiliating more so than grandstanding or virtue signaling. Your perspective probably depends on which cases you’ve heard about the most. Ultimately the questions for this meet-up include: What are the benefits and costs of cancel culture? What are the long-term effects on us all?

Feel free to include great examples, thoughts, and analysis in the comments but as always, not everyone can read them ahead of time.