Over the past few decades, we have seen the rise of social media and the internet. This has led to a rise in what people call “cancel culture.” This has become a Republican talking point calling out people on the left for being “soft” and not being able to handle free speech. The issue with this talking point is that cancel culture isn’t real. No one is really ever canceled.
A lot of public figures have said things or done things in the past that haven’t aged well. Comedians, politicians, actors and musicians have all come under fire from the public for things they have said in the past, but almost none of them have lost their job and following fully. The only people that I can think of that have truly been “canceled” are people that have sexual harassment and assault allegations being brought up against them, and I would say that if they are doing that kind of thing, they don’t deserve the fame they have, and it isn’t really canceling them.
A major example of this right now is Joe Rogan and his podcast which was bought by Spotify in 2020 for $100 million. Rogan has said slurs and many other inappropriate things on his podcast before and is still actively bringing people on and talking about vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation. This has led people to call for Spotify to cancel Rogan’s podcast. Spotify has yet to do so, and I don’t really see them doing this, but in a hypothetical world let’s say they did cancel his podcast. Rogan would be able to go and create another podcast and make a lot of money on that. On top of that he is also a standup comedian. Spotify canceling his podcast, which is one of the biggest podcasts in the world, would create a lot of media buzz and people would be talking about Rogan. This would make it pretty easy for him to go on a standup tour and brand it something about being canceled, and it he would make a lot of money from this. Rogan would be perfectly fine if Spotify canceled his show. I know this is one example, but most people that get “canceled” are normally fine and the public will forget about whatever controversy they were in within a few months. Rogan has had episodes of his podcast taken down, but he still has his deal with Spotify.
This idea of cancel culture is very useful to a lot of people on the right. They are able to bring it up so they can avoid talking about other, real issues that America is facing. This is a non-issue that has been blown out of proportion. This isn’t a threat to freedom of speech, and this is something that will go away if people stop talking about it
Mark Warren can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MarkWarren1832