I couldn't sleep, I was scared to go out — I've seen the chilling effect of cancel culture up close
about 5 years in Standard
Cancel culture used to refer to your flaky friends who would always back out of your carefully-laid dinner plans. Now it means something more sinister — an online pile-on that can result in banishment from your job, an event, or even from public life. It has come to prominence recently after a number of high-profile writers and intellectuals wrote an open letter to Harper's Magazine calling out cancel culture after J K Rowling faced a social media backlash for tweeting about trans women. There then followed another open letter from other writers and intellectuals cancelling the first letter. How about we cancel lengthy open letters?
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