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I would say that you don't have to be cancelled to be affected. When you see the cancelling of others, it mutes all discourse. When you can lose your job for no

I would say that you don't have to be cancelled to be affected. When you see the cancelling of others, it mutes all discourse. When you can lose your job for not having the correct opinions, it creates a self-censorship. THis limits discussion and discourse, and eventually limits the range of thought. This is what limiting language was all about in the book 1984, limiting language limited thought. Specifically the diversity of thought, which I will argue is necessary for cultural and human advancement. Without which we enter a new dark age. This affects us all, cancelled and not.

robmccoll 5y ago
This is true and has been. It's not illegal to hold certain opinions, but you aren't legally protected from subcultures or even large swaths of society deciding not to do business with you. Collectively through some ad hoc process, social groups decide what will and won't be tolerated in discourse within their sphere. In society at large, that tends to mean that for controversial topics, some groups will absolutely back you while others will shun you. If the state is supposed to fix it, the state will have to pick a side. The result tends to be authoritarian toward one side or another. The compromise we seem to have reached is that people taking specific actions to cause you physical harm or to induce some sort of trauma or concern for your own safety are illegal regardless of why. There may have been local fluctuations over time, but this trend has lead to now being one of the safest times in history to have and express a variety of views in many societies.