3602

From Troy Goodfellow’s Twitter feed:

3603

I think it’s perhaps less of a demand, and more of a suggestion.

One that most of the great humanitarian leaders throughout all of human history have advocated.

3604

Well, that’s a pretty good point. Assuming that the most popular view is the correct one is a good and safe way of operating and I’d be a hypocrite for arguing against it – after all, I lived that way for most of my youth, inappropriate behavior levied against me and all.

But… as I get older I find that I actively question the popular opinions more and more, and I’m oddly happier for it. Perhaps I’m just becoming more self-centered as I age.

So from my iconoclastic perch, I’d pose the following questions:

Is Internet Justice favored by the majority of the population, or just those on the Internet?

If it’s the latter, is it really the majority of the Internet or just the activists?

If it’s the latter, is it the majority of the activists, or just the loudest ones?

Finally, if it is the former for any of those questions, are you certain that being in the majority makes them more moral or ethical? We did elect Trump by something very close to a majority.

You can’t. But you can encourage it, or simply act as an example.

3605

This is an example of the bad faith in the whole ‘cancel culture’ claim.

The one tweet in question? It was an attempt to get a transit worker fired for eating on a train.

“I innocently used twitter to try to cancel someone and ended up getting cancelled myself and it’s just not fair!”

3606

Tynes, a communications officer for the World Bank Group, described herself as a “social media maven with over 8000 followers on Twitter” on her LinkedIn page.

Over 8000!

After the furor over her tweet, Tynes deleted it and issued an apology. She later deactivated her Twitter account and took down her personal website.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

3607

I humbly suggest the creation of a cancel culture thread. Having “Liberals also say and do stupid shit” be the de facto thread for arguments on that topic seems like a self-own for those who are opposed to the likes of the Harper’s letter.

3608

Wasn’t there one for 5 minutes, and then deleted?

3609

See, I think this is kind of an example of the problem though. Meaning, her actual original act.

Part of this is this kind of idea that we’re all vigilantes who need to destroy people that offend our sensibilities in the most minor of ways. Eating on a train… .WOOOO… let’s get that person fired! Maybe just let it slide? Just be cool? It ain’t gonna kill you. It’s another facet of this Karen effect, where people feel “empowered” to just fuck over other people in grossly oversized responses.

3610

Perhaps, but her original act was that of an elite using her position and status and following to try to punish someone far below her in status. Is that what ‘cancel culture’ is supposed to be? When important people punch down at peons?

3611

The cancel culture thread has been cancelled! Tyranny! Marxism!

3612

Karens looking to get someone fired existed long before social media was ever dreamed of.

During the heyday of department stores and Marshall Field’s dictum “The customer is always [to be treated as if they were] right” 100-odd years ago, department stores supposedly had “professional scapegoats” who were trotted out and fired when a Karen complained … only to go back to work and get fired again later in the day when the next irate Karen showed up.

This meme became widespread enough that they made movies based on the premise.

(Was this literally true or an urban legend? No idea, but that’s beside the point: the point is that Karens were assumed to be part of the retail landscape.)

3613

Much earlier in this thread I proposed the same thing. A couple days ago I created one, tagged some mods and asked if they could merge the relevant posts from here into that one.

My new thread was deleted with no explanation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3614

You were truly cancelled!

3615

Yes and no.

The DC Metro is amazingly paranoid about getting rats and whatnot, and they are incredibly militant about food being eaten anywhere in the system. People get food confiscated all the time – even apples or bananas that they are bringing with them to the office and not actively eating. A lot of people are ticketed, and a small handful of people are arrested each year.

So a DC Metro worker flouting the rules that apply to passengers and that many people feel are draconian is a pretty big deal.

This I agree with. Why broadcast their complaint over social media when simply sending a DM to the authorities would have sufficed?

3616

In this particular case, though, apparently the Metro authority has actually suspended the no-food, no-drink rule on the trains, so she wasn’t even violating any rules.

3617

Exactly this… Let me try and shame someone on my social media and possibly get them fired (pay consequences). Result instead is I get shamed on social media and pay consequences… cancel culture!

3618

“Sometimes I feel that criticisms of ‘cancel culture’ amount to [an] attempt to impose civility codes on the marketplace of ideas, sometimes by the same people who otherwise would be objecting to such civility codes applied to the first speaker,” White told me.

He added: “Calling a group of people a ‘mob’ is a way to avoid addressing their argument. It deprives them of agency, assumes they are taking their position out of groupthink or rage rather than because of values, and implicitly suggests that their proposition is less credible because too many people are sharing it.”

3619

Why would a DM to the authorities have even been desirable?

3620

I’ve created one. Lets see what happens.

3621

You’re probably not going to get the argument to move there without moving the arguments from here to there.