Why the Threat of "Cancel Culture" is Just Reactionary Fear-Mongering

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Many on the right have argued that cancel culture is a form of censorship being imposed by the censorious left. But the problem with that is that while the first amendment gives you the freedom to voice your opinion, it doesn't give you the freedom to use any platform you want to amplify it. You know, it's Alex Jones' Freedom of speech to spit his BS but it's also YT's freedom of speech to say we don't want this crap on our website (and saying that they have to would infringe on their first amendment right. Both sides have posed accusations of hypocrisy by bringing up the left versus right wing position of net neutrality but this doesn't mean the cases are comparable. Internet service providers get revenue via direct payments from their customers while social media sites get most of their profits from add revenue so the latter is going to be financially hurt by whom the provide a platform to so there is more hypocrisy coming from the right in this comparison but it doesn't end there.

There have been calls by right wing groups to boycott Star Wars for having a sexually and racially diverse cast for the sequel trilogy and that's just the tip of the iceberg. During the 2016 elections, many Trump sycophants' used death threats against journalists who spoke out against him with many using Holocaust references to drive the threat home against Jewish journalists.

Why the Threat of Cancel Culture is Just Reactionary Fear-Mongering

Today, it's arguably gotten worse because death threats against Dr. Fauci have become so severe that he had to beef up security.

And unlike boycotting death threats to silence someone IS a violation of their freedom of speech (in case you were going to cry "tu quo que"). I'm not going to pretend the left doesn't do this but given the disparity in politically motivated violence, it comes from the right more often:

Why the Threat of Cancel Culture is Just Reactionary Fear-Mongering

it's a pretty safe bet that these threats come from the right in the first place. On top of that, the left hasn't done anything remotely comparable to trying to silence the nations' leading epidemiologist during the deadliest pandemic in a century. But people who claim cancel culture is an issue also claim that now corporations can dictate which political messages people consume and try to manufacture hypocrisy by saying that people who are against corporate power are also in favor of companies having such power. But this argument is omitting one major fact: social media companies don't dictate what people see because there is no monopoly on social media. There are many social media sites and if you're ideas aren't provided a platform on any of them, that just means that they aren't competitive in the free marketplace of ideas. I mean the free market can't solve all of society's problems (healthcare, education, etc...) but it sure as shit can de-platform reactionary imbeciles. Now, you might argue that via a series of deals and secret connection, one administration has a de-facto monopoly on social media and for all I know you might be correct (and if so I think it should be broken up immediately). But if this is indeed the case and free speech is a forefront concern for you, leftist "outrage culture" is the least of your concern and your activist efforts would be better spent exposing and fracturing the conglomerate.

Why the Threat of "Cancel Culture" is Just Reactionary Fear-Mongering
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