This is an excellent essay that I absolutely disagree with... predominantly for the reasons that those in charge of a movement don't have control over where that movement ultimately heads.
Cancel culture doesn't reside only in the upper echelons of society and arts, it's prevalent in the thinking that informs identity poltiics on an interpersonal level for everyone. It becomes about asserting that language itself is a form of systemic oppression - in short... "I don't have to listen to you because I don't agree with you... and what's more, I'm going to ensure that the disagreement itself is publicised so that other people don't have to listen to you" - this can and will continue until only echo chambers exist.
I've read Ronson's book and found it absolutely terrifying. It was an eye opening experience for someone who sits on the libertarian left (oxymoronic as that is) to see the power of unfettered mob mentality convinced it is doing the morally right thing whilst destroying an individual for minor private transgressions. It also means that I can name Lindsey Stone.
What the social justice movement fails to account for is how it will apply the brakes to cancel culture once the lines between good and bad become blurred. No individual has control of it, it's simply a tool with which to hold the powerful accountable, and will then become a tool to hold everyone accountable, and then it will become the defacto law - guilt will simply be asserted in a public space with no right to reply. Society has done it before and will do it again. See The French Revolution, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia for what happens when the adherents of a political movement fail to account for where the movement is heading.
Identity politics is appealling because it allows you, an individual, to become the struggling hero in your narrative of you vs the world. It's because it is so appealling that it must be called out for what it is. Dangerous beyond all measure.
Here's an article I wrote a long time ago that's still as relevant today as it was when I penned it.
Having firmly disagreed you intellectually I'd now like to cancel you on behalf of all penguins. You are no longer welcome in Antarctica and some beaches in Southern Africa and South America. And London Zoo.
