New York ¨C ¡°Cancel culture¡± is a phenomenon with almost no defenders. Instead there are people who lament and assail it, and people who deny it exists. It ¡°isn¡¯t real,¡± it¡¯s ¡°a patchwork monster invented to scare children,¡± it¡¯s ¡°a spooky campfire story.¡±
In case you missed the point, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow put it in capital letters: ¡°Once more: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CANCEL CULTURE.¡± His work of persuasion not quite done, he offered an alternative explanation: ¡°The rich and powerful are just upset that the masses can now organize their dissent.¡±
What this school of thought has going for it is the fuzziness of the concept of ¡°cancel culture.¡± The same was true of its predecessor ¡°political correctness,¡± which was also denied to exist rather than defended. The line between criticism and intolerance, like the line between sensitivity and oversensitivity, is subjective.
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