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The Radical Individualist's avatar

The best defense is a good offense. I'd like to see counter suits in cases that merit them.

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le raz's avatar

Hmm... Was thinking this post was clear and excellent until:

"February 2019: Jussie Smollett is written out of the fifth season of “Empire” after his reports of being a victim of a hate crime the month prior fell apart. Smollett wasn’t canceled, he was caught lying about being a victim of a race-motivated crime. This — lying about having a crime committed against you, and as a result wasting police resources on an investigation into it — is itself a crime."

Was there a campaign? Is it because of a campaign that the bottom line might have been affected? If there was a campaign then wouldn't that meet your definition of cancel culture? Surely a campaign to "cancel liars" or even criminals is still cancelled culture.

I can see you might argue how it is a core part of the job. Actors are brands afterall, but as written you don't lead with that, or make it clear that that is why this isn't an example of cancel culture. The fact he is a liar is complete red herring, and distracts from the clarity of your point.

Thinking further I think the distinction you see here is that the "cancellation" is based on you interpreting them being cancelled for lying as different from them being cancelled for speach. I think such a distinction needs elaboration. Would cancelling Trump be fair game as he has lied? Should media platforms like twitter be allowed to pressured to deplatform trump because of that? Etc...

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