Two Things ‘Cancel Culture’ Refers To
On ‘speaking first’ and the meaning of ‘engagement’
“Cancel culture” isn’t real. This is, of course, my opinion. It is also a frame I wish to establish at the outset of these remarks.
Expressed concern over something called “cancel culture” is quite real. Such statements are frequent. I reflect on two common elements.
Who Speaks First?
Speech can be a call-and-response. One person speaks first, and another responds directly to what they said. This happens in spoken conversation. In writing, too, it’s clear which sentences belong to the original article and which are “comments” of human- or computer-enforced brevity.
Of course, we are all part of an ongoing cultural conversation. When someone initiates a spoken or written communication, in a sense they are responding to (or at least leveraging) something they heard once before, long ago, whether or not they acknowledge their predecessors. They don’t speak from a blank slate.
Regardless, when they “speak first” today, they’re framing the current interaction. They establish the terms of the micro-level conversation right now.
“Cancel culture,” as I said, is a boogeyman, and its only reality is in the minds of those who fear it. (This is…
