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c06n | 5 years ago

And fired from your job. And yelled at on the street. And prevented from working in your field ever again. And death threats.

So, blacklisting: check. Excommunication: check. I'd rather not wait till it goes down further.

discuss

order

whimsicalism|5 years ago

Half a century ago, in Japan, someone wrote a fictional story critical of the Emperor, and someone broke into the publishers house and murdered their housekeeper and severely injured their wife. [0]

In response to the murder, the writer was pretty much universally condemned and the a bill was introduced in the legislature to ban writings of that sort.

The fact that so many have convinced themselves that somehow we're in some new illiberal age is comical.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimanaka_incident

lainga|5 years ago

Well, peoples' expectations have changed in America since we declared independence from Japan.

omgwtfbyobbq|5 years ago

I think the point is this had been around for a while, and what people are calling "cancel culture" is the same old-same old, but with (hopefully) less prison/death.

There's nothing new about receiving negative feedback for having and expressing unpopular opinions. That's really common in pretty much every single social group I've been in, including on HN.

ghaff|5 years ago

There's also a difference between saying something stupid and having some people telling you to knock it off. And posting it or having it posted to Twitter with a possible consequence like a bunch of people emailing your employer demanding you be fired. Which they probably will because it's easier that way if you really did say something you shouldn't have.

fallingknife|5 years ago

Normal feedback is down votes and replies. Cancel culture is messaging dang and asking him to ban you.

futuretaint|5 years ago

this is common whataboutism. What about the dark ages ? What about burning witches ? If we claim to be a compassionate society we should be anti-censorship and let ideas succeed or fail through the strength of their argument.

whimsicalism|5 years ago

People are upset now that the current is shifting and you get shunned for being racist, rather than being shunned for not speaking properly or whatever the heck.

The underlying mechanism has not really changed.

shadowgovt|5 years ago

Very little of that is new ("You'll never work in this town again" is an old statement).

What has changed is that the Internet and the associated record of a person's conduct online can make the town very, very big indeed.

AngryData|5 years ago

I agree with your sentiment, but it wasn't that long ago that people were being brought to court in the US just for accusations of being socialist or communist. Any there wasn't even anything against the law with have different economic ideals.

throwawaygh|5 years ago

[deleted]

refenestrator|5 years ago

And that's really bad! Don't emulate it!

"We're gonna hurt some people ourselves to get even" is the devil speaking.

read_if_gay_|5 years ago

That is cancel culture too. No one upthread made this about political sides. Why are you?

xenophonB|5 years ago

It's not 1960 lol, there are not vast swathes of the country where that happens, since the liberal left has almost total control via the Federal bureaucracy for enforcing their values everywhere, not just in blue states

tstrimple|5 years ago

Who (apart from Colin Kaepernick) has been prevented from working in their field ever again?