Society/Culture Has cancel culture gone too far?

Jun 19, 2008
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Defamation is adjucated in a court of law. Not denying it has flaws in its application. But it is a process.
Cancel culture is largely determined by a court of commercial vested interest. Unfortunately. Not always for a greater holistic view for the betterment of mankind. Tho I dont deny there are those pure at heart who rightly defend marginalisation. But its driven by voices of a populus and not an actual documented and practised process.
Colour me cynical and basic but thats how my simple minds eye sees the variance of the two.
 
Dec 20, 2014
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Defamation is adjucated in a court of law. Not denying it has flaws in its application. But it is a process.
Cancel culture is largely determined by a court of commercial vested interest. Unfortunately. Not always for a greater holistic view for the betterment of mankind. Tho I dont deny there are those pure at heart who rightly defend marginalisation. But its driven by voices of a populus and not an actual documented and practised process.
Colour me cynical and basic but thats how my simple minds eye sees the variance of the two.
One is a legal protection. The other is all about "offence", and generally has no basis in law.

It's not hard.

These peanuts are saying a dog and an elephant are the same because they both have 4 legs.
 
Dec 20, 2014
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All good. I was just really struggling to understand the argument littered over several pages. Not for the first time on BF.
These peanuts want to pretend that cancel culture isn't a real thing, or that it's so overstated by conservatives that even talking about it is off limits.

So their latest argument is "yeah well but defamation cases are cancel culture" without understanding the difference, or that many defamation cases are brought against media outlets, not against Joe Public. If you got rid of defamation law, Murdoch tabloids would have a field day.
 
Jun 19, 2008
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Vested and myopic commercial interests are a dirty thing. But like oxygen, they undeniably exist. As does cancel culture due to its largely commercial oxygen. I dont even subscribe to the whole woke/non woke thang. Its a masquerade parade of semantics.. Sustained by economic interests.
But as I said, I have no doubt there are those that genuinely want equality for all but the loudest voices/reactions seem to me to be commercialy driven.
I dont even understand why this is even a topic of argument when its so patently obvious.
 

bfff

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Jun 6, 2006
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That makes no difference.

Threats of defamation action still derive from legal protections against reputational damage.

Cancel culture has nothing to do with that, and it generally has no basis in law. Cancel culture is about "offence" and breaches of ideological orthodoxy. That's not what defamation law involves. You can't bring a defamation suit simply because you were "offended".

A defamation threat may be used as a tactic to silence a critic or may be the expression of a legitimate grievance.

Couldn’t ‘cancellers’ also be expressing a legitimate grievance? There are legal protections against hate speech and discrimination.
 
Dec 20, 2014
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A defamation threat may be used as a tactic to silence a critic or may be the expression of a legitimate grievance.
It still has basis in law, unlike cancel culture, which is simply a matter of "offence" or breaching certain orthodoxies.

You can't ignore the distinction between something that is a matter of law and something that isn't.

Couldn’t ‘cancellers’ also be expressing a legitimate grievance? There are legal protections against hate speech and discrimination.
And I'm generally fine with those protections, depending how "hate speech" claims are defined and assessed. And discrimination isn't a matter of speech, necessarily. It's a matter of material discrimination. Maybe you mean vilification?

I'm not some fundamentalist who says absolutely anything goes. There are still public health and safety arguments that I accept, but I think generally there needs to be a high bar for censorship or removal. It can't simply be a matter of someone being "offended". That's not sufficient. But if it's content that is obviously illegal, then I don't think we're talking about cancel culture. That's simply a matter of enforcing the law, which I regard as distinct from cancel culture.

For example, if the government and/or platforms crack down on Islamic State recruiting people online by sharing beheading videos, I don't regard that as cancel culture. Same goes for inciting violence, other forms of online radicalisation, child porn, copyright infringements and any number of other legal restrictions on speech.

We can debate those restrictions but enforcing legal prohibitions, for which there are agreed reasons, isn't cancel culture. That's not what I'm talking about when I criticise cancel culture. That's reserved for content or speech that is otherwise legal but has simply been deemed "offensive" or disagreeable, prompting some folks to demand its removal.
 
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