I suspect the cases that seem like egregious thought and speech policing of context-reasonable things obscure this more basic, uncontroversial progress in decency.
All the actually tough cases involve authoritarian power grabs over institutions.
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Yes, there have been egregious cases. Usually in the peripheries of institutional control battles. They should be analyzed for what they are — specific battles over institutional power. Like board seats or committee control. Speech policing/cancelation are red herrings there.
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I mean, really... are you going to read ritual theater around occupying native lands in SF city meetings as an actual cogent discourse on native rights? Or is it better to treat that the way we treat (for eg) Carl Icahn commenting on business models of companies he’s raiding?
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Just as you don’t treat activist shareholder and PE raiding propaganda as meaningful business commentary, you shouldn’t treat institutional power struggles as meaningful cultural commentary.
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And finally, le sigh the motte and bailey move of turning conversations about actual social justice into conversations about trusties writing for old media from Brooklyn. That’s the easy way out. Just because the messengers are easy to shoot, doesn’t mean the message is empty.
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I’ve been basically stationary in the culture war since I started tracking it in 2013, because afaict nothing material has changed. Players have come and gone, careers have been made and unmade, and entire subcultures have swung around like starling murmurations.
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It’s disappointing that people have basically lost all interest in all underlying real issues. The internet of beefs has fully taken over. But that doesn’t mean the substance of old issues has magically disappeared. It just means they are evolving in ungoverned, dark ways.
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We’re now at peak-antiwoke, and the early beginning of the antiantiwoke phase of the culture war. Chapter 7 by my count. Is antiantiwoke the same as woke? Stay tuned, we’ll find out in Chapter 8, the Rise of Threadthulhu, premiering in 2022.
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Based on this poll, I hereby claim actual contrarian status. This thread won’t be popular with the majority of people who follow me (option 3 likely splits in ways that will be hostile to this thread) 🤣
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Poll: What’s your view of cancel culture?
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Replying to
if I didn't regularly grumble at your tweets, I'd assume something had gone direly wrong 🤣
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You’re now religious so I’ve moved you to a different channel where all arguments are canceled. It’s going to be a beautiful no-stress friendship from here on out 🐰🐰🐰

