The Real problem with cancel culture

[crazy canuck]

Ran across an interesting episode of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast over the weekend.

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-judgment-of-helen-levitt

It is a fairly obvious, but sympathetic take on "cancel culture", but by looking at the 1950s Red Scare and Hollywood blacklist.

Subject was one Helen Levitt.  It starts out stating pretty plainly that while Mrs. Levitt didn't do anything wrong (she made sandwiches), she was a 100% unrepentant communist - full-fledged, card-carrying Communist.  It had audio of her saying if you weren't a communist you either were afraid or just weren't very smart.  Even 30 years later she refused to condemn Stalin or the party.  Gladwell recounts the millions killed by the USSR, even reveals himself at one point to have been a Reagan-admiring anti-communist at age 18.

But her and her husband were screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1950s, and soon enough were called to testify before HUAC.  They took the 5th and were blacklisted.  They couldn't work, they were shunned by their friends, for a number of years.  Really had trouble getting enough money to feed their kids.

Eventually the blacklist faded and they started working again by the 1960s and 1970s.

It doesn't take super long to become obvious Gladwell means this as a parable about cancel culture, but obviousness doesn't necessarily take away from the point.  When someone has even demonstrably "wrong" views, is a public shunning and shaming really the right response?



(and then, to my mind to make up for the sin of being anti-woke, he takes 3 episodes to analyze the sins of the Disney movie The Little Mermaid, up to the point of re-writing a new ending.  I fully take the point that the main character Ariel has like zero agency in her own story after the first act, but when the re-imagined ending has no climactic battle, the witch Ursula marrying King Triton, and the love interest Prince Eric marries his gay lover, this goes incredibly woke)

What does woke even mean now in your conservative world view?

[Josquius]

I don't understand.
Likening current woke hysteria to the red scare - yes. Though thankfully it hasn't got anywhere near as bad.
But the little mermaid. Eh?

[Sheilbh]

I have to be honest I go all "political correctness gone mad!" when people complain about all the queer-coded Disney villains

I love Scar and Ursula and Jafar - of course they're technically "bad" but they normally get the best lines and steal the film.

[Barrister]

I don't understand.
Likening current woke hysteria to the red scare - yes. Though thankfully it hasn't got anywhere near as bad.
But the little mermaid. Eh?

That's just my connection.

There was one episode linking "cancel culture" to the 1950s red scare.

The next three episodes are spent analyzing The Little Mermaid in a highly "politically correct" way (and not without some merit).

It was my hypothesis that it was ordered this way to make up for the sin of going against "cancel culture".

But by all means check out the Revisionist History podcast yourself.  It's in the top 100 podcasts worldwide, and would probably rank higher if it produced content on a weekly basis (instead it does seasons, then takes months off).

[Josquius]

I thought this piece quite interesting. I am seeing a trickle of thought out push back against the anti woke cult starting to appear of late. I hope we are turning a corner with this stuff.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/03/they-call-me-a-critical-race-theorist-to-delegitimise-my-voice-historian-david-olusoga?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I admit I haven't read any of this guys stuff though his TV show is rather great. He speaks a lot of sense.

[Berkut]

"Anti woke cult".

Yep, you are being very thoughtful, for sure.

[crazy canuck]

I thought that was being overly polite actually 

[Berkut]

Of course. There is the woke, and the "anti woke cultists"

Those are the only two possibilities, of course. 

[Berkut]

https://medium.com/@zelphontheshelf/10-signs-youre-probably-in-a-cult-1921eb5a3857

[Josquius]

"Anti woke cult".

Yep, you are being very thoughtful, for sure.

Of course. There is the woke, and the "anti woke cultists"

Those are the only two possibilities, of course.

Interesting that one post apart you handily rebut your own reply.

[DGuller]

"Anti woke cult".

Yep, you are being very thoughtful, for sure.

Of course. There is the woke, and the "anti woke cultists"

Those are the only two possibilities, of course.

Interesting that one post apart you handily rebut your only reply.

Am I missing something here?  This makes no sense at all.

[garbon]

Of course. There is the woke, and the "anti woke cultists"

Those are the only two possibilities, of course.

Feels like an argument that no one was making.

[Josquius]

Am I missing something here?  This makes no sense at all.

Berkut seemed triggered by calling out the anti woke cult. The natural reply I thought to make to this was pretty much the one he made himself, that though it may be the worldview of the cult, the world is not really divided into two sides of woke and anti-woke. That a nuanced view beyond "its different to my day thus bad" is possible.

[Admiral Yi]

He probably feels triggered because he might share some opinions with teh cult.

[crazy canuck]

Of course. There is the woke, and the "anti woke cultists"

Those are the only two possibilities, of course.

No, and nobody is saying that.

But there certainly are anti woke death cultists.  And that IS putting it politely.  Fucking racist scum could also be used but that is less polite.