Newfangled Witch Burning
While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects free speech, it doesn’t guarantee listeners — and certainly not approving listeners. Too many folks don’t understand that latter part. As a result, our land has become widely afflicted with “cancel culture” — a phrase describing how those who are deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner are shamed, ostracized, or boycotted, or have had their livelihoods destroyed.
Those who cancel, sometimes as part of a mob action, heard something they didn’t like.
As with so many aspects of life today, this phenomenon is seen differently by those on the American Left and Right. Also, not surprisingly, there are many definitions of “cancel culture.” “This is a power struggle of different groups or forces in society, I think, at its most basic,” says Nicole Holliday, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, as quoted by NPR.
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