What Cancel Culture Can’t Do

The Endless Penalty of Marginalization

First of all, cancel culture is real. It’s real insofar as there is a thing called “canceling,” where some folks decide that some woman or man has done or said something which the first group finds offensive, hurtful, or traumatizing. In response to these offenses, the traumatized “cancel” the offender.

Canceling means offenders should be marginalized, mocked, or de-platformed from spaces that might otherwise host their views. I’ve seen it happen. A man or woman, often with little evidence beyond suspicion, is cast into condemnation to pay for their sins — whether those sins are real or imagined.