The cancel culture is very selective.
Jimmy Fallon thought imitating Chris Rock in blackface on national TV was OK, and people accepted his apology.
In 2011, Fred Armisen defended his use of blackface (or “honeyface”) to portray Barack Obama and Prince on Saturday Night Live, no one seems to mind and he’s still steadily working.
Megyn Kelly thought kids imitating Diana Ross in blackface on Halloween was OK, and her apology was followed by her being fired.
Was the issue blackface, or that people were looking for an excuse to fire a conservative TV figure anyway?
The New York Times published op-eds by Yasir Arafat, Moammar Gaddafi, leaders of Hamas and the Taliban. They never fact-checked the op-eds by Palestinians. Suddenly, when they publish an op-ed by a Republican US senator that was not nearly as offensive by any measure compared to the others, heads roll and they announce that they will start fact-checking op-eds.
Was the issue the content of the op-eds, or whether the causes were aligned with the politics of NYT staff and readers?
Roseanne Barr dressed up as Hitler in 2009 when she was still regarded as a liberal, and shook off the controversy. But she was literally cancelled after she posted an offensive tweet – after she publicly supported Donald Trump - and no one gave her the benefit of the doubt for her explanation. (I myself had no idea Valerie Jarrett was black.) If she would have still been viewed as a liberal, is there any doubt that her apology would have been accepted and she would have kept her job?
In all three cases there was a rush to judgment – people were fired within two days of the incident.
Now people are going after monuments to people who owned slaves when it was not considered out of the ordinary. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are once again being attacked for their having had slaves. But would anyone even think for a second to “cancel” Mohammed, who bought, sold and even captured slaves – a much worse crime by any measure? And that’s hardly the worst thing he did by today’s standards.
The cancel culture has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with political intimidation. It is simply bullying. And the people who should be fighting against bullies – the media, the politicians – are too frightened to speak up because they could be the next victims.