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Honestly, at this point, whenever I hear about someone going on a tirade against "cancel culture," all it does is make me think, "Well... hmm... so I wonder what kind of heinous skeletons this person has in their closet waiting to be exposed to the light that they're trying to get ahead of by wailing about cancel culture."
On the one hand, Denzel Washington isn't necessarily wrong, ridiculous angry word salad about followers and leaders and "can't be canceled if you haven't signed up" (whatever the fuck that dumbshit is supposed to mean) and "faith in God" dumbfuckery aside. Cancel culture doesn't really exist at all in any truly meaningful way, given how so many of the high profile asshats who ostensibly have been "canceled" over the years now have multi-million dollar Netflix specials in which they do nothing but whinge and baw about how "canceled" they are.
On the other hand, if you say or do something incredibly stupid or incredibly evil or incredibly squicky, and the general public finds out about it, then they tend to turn against you, and that may or may not lead to you losing work that you otherwise would have had, had you not done or said the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing. If "cancel culture" exists at all, then that is all it is, no more and no less. It has been that way ever since the very concept of fame came into existence. It comes part and parcel with being a celebrity. Your career lives or dies solely at the whim of everyone else, simple as that. If people no longer want to watch your movies or read your books or listen to your music or whatever, because you said or did something incredibly stupid or evil or squicky, then if you want to cry and say you've been "canceled," then sure. If you want to call that "cancel culture" rather than "suffering the consequences of your own dipshit actions," then fine. But then, of course, if there are enough lickspittles out there who still want to continue watching/reading/listening to you, either despite or because of the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing you did or said, then no, you have not been "canceled."
(Well, unless your name is Donald Trump, of course. In that particular case, you can do/say every stupid/evil/squicky thing, and all it means is that you get to be the President twice and that you get a legion of sycophants who bow and scrape to your every whim and who want to dictate to everyone else, in your name, exactly how the country is to be run, despite every other non-stupid, non-evil, non-squicky person in the world wanting you and your army of adulators dead and gone.)
See also.
On the one hand, Denzel Washington isn't necessarily wrong, ridiculous angry word salad about followers and leaders and "can't be canceled if you haven't signed up" (whatever the fuck that dumbshit is supposed to mean) and "faith in God" dumbfuckery aside. Cancel culture doesn't really exist at all in any truly meaningful way, given how so many of the high profile asshats who ostensibly have been "canceled" over the years now have multi-million dollar Netflix specials in which they do nothing but whinge and baw about how "canceled" they are.
On the other hand, if you say or do something incredibly stupid or incredibly evil or incredibly squicky, and the general public finds out about it, then they tend to turn against you, and that may or may not lead to you losing work that you otherwise would have had, had you not done or said the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing. If "cancel culture" exists at all, then that is all it is, no more and no less. It has been that way ever since the very concept of fame came into existence. It comes part and parcel with being a celebrity. Your career lives or dies solely at the whim of everyone else, simple as that. If people no longer want to watch your movies or read your books or listen to your music or whatever, because you said or did something incredibly stupid or evil or squicky, then if you want to cry and say you've been "canceled," then sure. If you want to call that "cancel culture" rather than "suffering the consequences of your own dipshit actions," then fine. But then, of course, if there are enough lickspittles out there who still want to continue watching/reading/listening to you, either despite or because of the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing you did or said, then no, you have not been "canceled."
(Well, unless your name is Donald Trump, of course. In that particular case, you can do/say every stupid/evil/squicky thing, and all it means is that you get to be the President twice and that you get a legion of sycophants who bow and scrape to your every whim and who want to dictate to everyone else, in your name, exactly how the country is to be run, despite every other non-stupid, non-evil, non-squicky person in the world wanting you and your army of adulators dead and gone.)
See also.
