Cancel Culture

It's not a new thing. It's existed my entire life in one form or another.

I grew up with parents trying get heavy metal bands banned. More than one of the kids TV presenters I grew up had to hide that they were gay. I'm pretty sure a blue Peter presenter was sacked for getting divorced!

People were 'cancelled', or targeted to be cancelled, or had to hide their true self through fear of cancellation, simply for not being 'normal' by some weird societal standard. Newspapers regularly ripped people apart especially successful women and people of colour. But it was never referred to as cancelling.

Funny that the sort of people rambling on about 'cancel culture' these days are the likes of Laurence Fox, Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Joey Barton...

It's not cancel culture. It's straight from the schoolyard. Bullies getting caught out and playing the victim when they face consequences.

 

They are moaning because they are now the ones getting cancelled instead of being the ones doing the cancelling.

 

Bingo.

You see it on here. Someone posts some drivel straight from the mouth of Farage or Johnson, then is questioned about it. When this happens they burst into tears and claim that because their views don't "conform to the clique" that they're cancelled.

Pigswill.

 

On the whole most of today's cancel culture is simply pandering to a noisy minority on different issues.

All this rubbish about trying to look back on history and trying to wipe it from ever being mentioned an example of this. It is our history, good or bad we live with it and can't change it.
Things that are considered bad or a taint on the nation for instance shouldn't be treated as some taboo especially in education, use that word education to say this is what happened and looks how we have moved on since then.

We studied World War 2 with a perspective on both sides and also the history of medicine. Some of the ancient medical treatments would certainly not be practiced today and seen as unethical or barbaric. It doesn't mean we have to wipe things from living memory, just learn from them and accept as history.

Young people especially now I feel are much more triggered and easily offended, it will be interesting to watch their reactions in the next 20 to 30 years when the next generation challenge their lifestyle and our history.

We should never lose free speech unless it is directly inviting violence etc, but also accept to be challenged on our views.

 

People shouldn't be cancelled. We are every one of us different. Gender, race, nationality etc etc. The only thing we have in common is our humanity. If I cant tolerate others for their differences how can I expect anyone to tolerate me when I'm different?

 

These days if you say you're English, fly an England flag or celebrate Christmas/Easter/St George's day you're thrown in jail, convicted of high racism, executed, attainted and your home town blown up and removed from all ordinance maps.

 

Those young people grew up watching the older generations trying to cancel what they didn't like or viewed as inappropriate. I wonder what Inspired them to start cancelling?

It's certainly cyclical but the real issue is, as I said, bullies playing victims. They are exactly the people who try to oppress anyone of differing opinions.

Were those kids idiots for pulling that statue down and throwing it in the sea? Most certainly.

Should we really have to look at statues of slave traders every day because 'tradition'? Probably f**king not.

Keep it in the history books for sure so we learn. But we should be allowed to revise our views on the past as we grow as a society.

 

It seems less cancelled and more challenged.

 

I broadly agreed with your initial post, but I don't have any issue with pulling down statues myself. They're now in museums, part of history where they can be seen in context, not front and centre of part of a living culture. Turns out they weren't needed after all.

I get slightly more irked at differences of actual opinions through words. But as you pointed out this has often happened before, difference being that the medium of those words (Twatter/X) is now seen by millions of people in seconds, which completely alters the reaction and response. I do think there's a certain intolerance of viewpoints, but then again even there, there's a line that can be crossed, just depends where you want to draw it...

 

I should be clear. It was the action of ripping it down and throwing it into the sea that I viewed as irresponsible and perhaps provocative. Not that it shouldn't have been removed and placed in a museum.

And yeah socials have a lot to answer for. Especially with lunatics like Musk at the helm.

 

like jimmy carr, ricky gervais and joe rogan all preaching cancel culture and the ‘ooh I can’t say this’ whilst all being given new netflix standup specials.

 

Personally I think the historical symbolism of tearing down a statue and throwing it in the sea is way greater and more important than petitioning to have it successfully removed on the back of a lowloader.

 

What about the historical symbolism of defacing Stonehenge?

Perhaps petitioning before action might be a better route.

One man's symbolism may be the whole nation's loss. Who are you as an individual to decide and potentially sow despair for the rest of us?

Why would it be for just you to decide what monument stood or fell?

 

Should a statue be put up to commemorate those who have torn down statues?

 

I'd say there's an obvious a difference between objecting to defacing an ancient monument that has nothing to do with climate change and pulling down a statue of someone intrinsically in slavery/colonialism.

There's no loss in that, unless you're so wedded to a version of history that is at odds with reality.

Edit: I'm sure stonehenge will be fine. It's unfortunate but not worthy of losing my mind over.

 

I'm not sure I'd place just you in charge of which monument gets to live or die.

Stonehenge means a lot to the world. It means quite a bit to me too, having it on my list of fascinating obsessions. Obviously it does not hold the same worth to you.

Anyway, my point is that there is too much noise about cancel and not enough simple tolerance. We should listen to all views, rather than remove them. I trust myself to know the difference between right and wrong, and not have anyone else decide it for me.

 

David Icke
Russell Brand
Jim Davidson
Andrew Tate

 

As I said, it will be cleaned up and it will be fine. Doesn't mean I agree with what they did, seems a bit pointless.

We've listened to peoples views on colonialism and a history of how "great" Britain was, ruling the seas, conquering far off lands for Queen and country etc. whilst largely ignoring or lamely justifying the often ugly reality. Eventually some people decided they'd had enough and pulled down a statue. Some folks lost their minds but everything is OK and you can see the statue where it should be observed in its rightful context, in a museum. Nobody is asking you to think any differently than you already do.