I agree with your rhetorical questions, but yes I think you are missing something: Collusion and coercion. I never watched a single full episode of Friends. It

I agree with your rhetorical questions, but yes I think you are missing something: Collusion and coercion. I never watched a single full episode of Friends. It was obviously a stupid show. I chose to ignore it. I did NOT rally all my own friends and urge them to boycott Friends. I did not accuse Friends of creating a toxic environment that was literally or even figuratively killing me. I didn’t coin a term “micro-aggression” then use it as a synonym for aggression then accuse Friends of committing that act against me or my kind. Of course you are free not to associate with someone you don’t like. But when you make that decision solely due to fear of being ostracized by your social peers, that is the mechanism of cancel culture. I don’t click “like” of some things on LinkedIn that I actually like, because I don’t want to lose customers over my political opinions. I got bills to pay.