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> Publicly state your intention to cancel anyone who cancels you This doesn’t seem to be something that everyone can do. "Cancellation" irradiates someone as a

> Publicly state your intention to cancel anyone who cancels you This doesn’t seem to be something that everyone can do. "Cancellation" irradiates someone as a racist or sexist. It’s a power reserved to those who can appear to credibly make that claim.

baryphonic 6y ago
Cancellation is a tactic, like terrorism, disinformation, etc. Structurally speaking, it involves a swarm of activists contacting employers or organizations the target is associated with, and maybe even the employers or organizations the target's family and friends are associated with. The swarm will claim that they are going to stop patronizing/supporting these companies and organizations (often this is a fraudulent threat, but it doesn't matter). Sophisticated cancelation attacks also involve some activist in journalist's clothing prepared to write an unflattering story about any of the organizations being pressured by the swarm. The bigotry thing is not actually essential, just like support for Irish republicanism or Islamic fundamentalist extremism is not an essential aspect of terrorism, or even being a Russian or Chinese government agent is not essential to spreading disinformation. (And in most cases, charges of sexism happen to be untrue.) Bullying and serial harassment may not be as "irradiating" as charges of sexism and racism, but they are still considered bad in our culture. And besides, most of the wokes themselves are actually themselves quite racist, and in some cases (e.g. Robin DiAngelo) they admit it. The end goal of retaliatory cancelation should be to get the organizations being pressured to take a stand to instead wash their hands of the whole thing. It increases the cost of taking the cancel swarm bait, since a counterswarm may also appear at any moment. The one aspect I don't know about is the sophisticated attacks involving journalist-activists.

baryphonic 6y ago

Cancellation is a tactic, like terrorism, disinformation, etc. Structurally speaking, it involves a swarm of activists contacting employers or organizations the target is associated with, and maybe even the employers or organizations the target's family and friends are associated with. The swarm will claim that they are going to stop patronizing/supporting these companies and organizations (often this is a fraudulent threat, but it doesn't matter). Sophisticated cancelation attacks also involve some activist in journalist's clothing prepared to write an unflattering story about any of the organizations being pressured by the swarm. The bigotry thing is not actually essential, just like support for Irish republicanism or Islamic fundamentalist extremism is not an essential aspect of terrorism, or even being a Russian or Chinese government agent is not essential to spreading disinformation. (And in most cases, charges of sexism happen to be untrue.) Bullying and serial harassment may not be as "irradiating" as charges of sexism and racism, but they are still considered bad in our culture. And besides, most of the wokes themselves are actually themselves quite racist, and in some cases (e.g. Robin DiAngelo) they admit it. The end goal of retaliatory cancelation should be to get the organizations being pressured to take a stand to instead wash their hands of the whole thing. It increases the cost of taking the cancel swarm bait, since a counterswarm may also appear at any moment. The one aspect I don't know about is the sophisticated attacks involving journalist-activists.