Here's why I hardly talk politics online

What has cancel culture cost us?

Hey friends,

One of the most memorable texts we did for Literature class was Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The novel's protagonist, Hester Prynne, adorns a scarlet 'A' that brands her as an adulteress. The townspeople avoid Hester, but she does not run. On the contrary, she holds her head high and it's business-as-usual for her.

Today, cancel culture is reminiscent of the scarlet 'A' and the social stigma it represents. If Hester lived in our society today, would she have continued about her business with an air of regality? Or, would she have disappeared from the public eye for good?

Today's read: 'The New Puritans - Mob Justice is Trampling Democratic Discourse' published in The Atlantic

Today's read draws comparisons between the Puritans then and cancel culture today.

Even though I have not picked up the novel in a while, I can see how some of the scenes resemble the weight of cancel culture. For instance, the hush voices when Hester is in the vicinity, the physical isolation of her humble cottage, the pointed fingers, and the shunning of people related to Hester. If we were to pause for a moment and think, it is not hard to spot the similarities.

The main difference is that much of the public shaming and shunning now occur on social media. Sentiments from virtual spaces then ripple out and result in real-life consequences for the accused.

The censoriousness, the shunning, the ritualized apologies, the public sacrifices—these are rather typical behaviors in illiberal societies with rigid cultural codes, enforced by heavy peer pressure. This is a story of moral panic, of cultural institutions policing or purifying themselves in the face of disapproving crowds. The crowds are no longer literal, as they once were in Salem, but rather online mobs, organized via Twitter, Facebook, or sometimes internal company Slack channels.

Perhaps, 'illiberal' is too strong a word to describe the angry mobs that organize under hashtags. After all, there are positive and even progressive outcomes of cancel culture. For instance, tyrants at the workplace can no longer have everything their way, the powerless have more breathing space to speak up, and there is wider support for victims of any kind.

The heavy hand of the mob is an increasingly strong deterrent against misbehavior.

What about due process?

That said, peer pressure is one of the biggest sticking points in cancel culture. You are either with us or against us.

People who sit on the fence until more details come to light are often perceived as 'weak'. When we are forced to take a stand early or be marked as accomplices, due process is often chucked out the door.

Instead, the formal and informal administrative bodies that judge the fate of people who have broken social codes are very much part of a swirling, emotive public conversation, one governed not by the rules of the courtroom or logic or the Enlightenment but by social-media algorithms that encourage anger and emotion, and by the economy of likes and shares that pushes people to feel—and to perform—outrage.

Not only do we cry for justice, but we also pressurize the institutions and people around the 'condemned' to take action as well. It is as if we refuse to back down until the accused is completely isolated from the rest of society.

No one—of any age, in any profession—is safe. In the age of Zoom, cellphone cameras, miniature recorders, and other forms of cheap surveillance technology, anyone’s comments can be taken out of context; anyone’s story can become a rallying cry for Twitter mobs on the left or the right. Anyone can then fall victim to a bureaucracy terrified by the sudden eruption of anger. And once one set of people loses the right to due process, so does everybody else.

As the author rightly laments, but what about due process? The truth matters less in cancel culture because if enough people believe that the accused is morally corrupt, then the allegations are likely true.

Not that I am sympathetic to the people who are canceled, but I would say that anyone who gets canceled today faces a far worse fate than Hester did. Social media gives us the privilege of anonymity, but unfortunately, many of us wield it in unforgiving and even questionable ways.

The fear of getting canceled is real

It is great that cancel culture makes us more mindful of each other's emotions. We could do with a little more civility and empathy on the Internet these days.

However, trouble arises when people stay out of discussions altogether because they do not dare to express an unpopular opinion. Even those who have done nothing wrong worry that a poorly phrased statement would rain fire and fury upon them.

Twitter, the president of one major cultural institution told me, “is the new public sphere.” Yet Twitter is unforgiving, it is relentless, it doesn’t check facts or provide context. Worse, like the elders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who would not forgive Hester Prynne, the internet keeps track of past deeds, ensuring that no error, no mistake, no misspoken sentence or clumsy metaphor is ever lost.

Even I am scared of getting canceled. Therefore, I try my best to steer clear of controversy. Although I express strong opinions offline, you'll hardly see me declaring my political affiliations online.

With things changing so quickly—and mostly for the better—I fear that what is acceptable today may sound insensitive ten years down the road. And we all know that a tweet, no matter how old, is fair game in the court of public opinion. Don't believe me? Ask Chrissy Teigen.

At what cost?

But how much constructive debate does cancel culture suppress? If we do not engage with one another on the most contentious topics, we limit the exchange of ideas. Could cancel culture be one of the reasons why societies around the world are increasingly polarized?

Or, is it as the author says:

Worse, if we drive all of the difficult people, the demanding people, and the eccentric people away from the creative professions where they used to thrive, we will become a flatter, duller, less interesting society, a place where manuscripts sit in drawers for fear of arbitrary judgments. The arts, the humanities, and the media will become stiff, predictable, and mediocre. Democratic principles like the rule of law, the right to self-defense, the right to a just trial—even the right to be forgiven—will wither. There will be nothing to do but sit back and wait for the Hawthornes of the future to expose us.

I do not fully agree with the author's implied meaning that the canceled are often the people who make society diverse. Surely we can do without the rapists, racists, and sexist influences in society.

However, cancel culture could indeed be so powerful that 'manuscripts sit in drawers' instead of being published for the public to ponder and debate. These 'manuscripts' symbolize the alternative, well-intentioned arguments that never see the light of day.

Social media gave us a powerful tool to connect with the world, and yet we are ironically becoming intolerant of each other. Increasingly polarized societies chip away at the middle ground that used to precipitate consensus and civil debate.

So, what can we do?

The reality is that we need diverse, controversial opinions to challenge the norm. Even if we find flaws in opposing arguments, at least we are aware of how the other side thinks. This exchange of ideas helps us refine our understanding of the world in a constant feedback loop.

We also ought to consider how our perception of reality is mediated through social media. The platforms we are on shape and bias the way we think. Before we join the rallying call of the mob, the onus is on us to fact-check and verify events.

Perhaps, what we need to do is take a step back and talk to each other.

So, what do you think? Is cancel culture a positive or a negative force? If you believe that cancel culture falls in a grey zone, is there anything we can do to make cancel culture more good than bad? I would love to hear your opinions in the comments section.

Let's talk soon!

Sincerely,

Ming