š¾ Archived View for idiomdrottning.org āŗ throne-culture captured on 2024-05-10 at 11:01:29. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
ā¬ ļø Previous capture (2023-11-14)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When someone demonstrates messed up values, speaks cruelly, reasons in us-vs-them terms, affirms kyriarchy, or even performs more directly illocutionary speech acts (like swatting or doxing)ā¦ I often see one of two reactions, and more rarely a third.
Most commonly, I see ālol, they did nothing wrong, creativity is an act of love, itās just the marketplace of ideas, itās all in good fun, donāt be such snowflakeā.
The second most common response I see is a call for cancellation. āHow can anyone work with such-and-such after this? Fire them!ā
Much, much more rarely than either of those two, but it does show up, is āI think what they did is wrong but I am ready to forgive them.ā (Kind of rare for a reason: it's difficult for C to forgive what A did to B. It's easier for C to forgive what A did to C.)
I wanna take a step back from these three reactions here and see who the actors in this drama are.
It seems to me, but I donāt have hard data on this, that often the accused is a person that has some amount of power, and the people expressing one of the above three positions are anonymous, nothing-to-lose voices in a mob. (Especially those who express it most strongly and with least nuance.)
It is a disproportionate punishment for any offense to be sentenced to death by starvation, utter cancellation in its most slipped slope sense, no livelihood, hope you like digging through trash because you now bear the mark of Cain.
Iām not, however, convinced that āof course we donāt mind, hereās the keys to your throne back, your majestyā is a good response either.
Itās easy to realize that a prerequisite for cancel culture is the mob, and that multicast media has been a stronger enabler for mobs than pitchforks and torches ever were. The internet is a huge, crashing, roaring ocean of voices. Express any criticism, no matter how nuanced, and youāll find yourself part of a megaphonous wave, a dogpile completely burying and smothering the person you wanted to set straight.
The other prerequisite, though, is this world of thrones. We live in a world where instead of just listening to the best liāl garage band in your own neighborhood, you can listen to the best songs in the entire world. Instead of listening to grandmaās stories, you can read the best-selling author. For everyone on a throne, there are many who were denied that chanceāsometimes denied it because of kyriarchy, racism, sexism, classismā¦
With great power, there must also come great responsibility. Right now, neither the regents on their thrones, nor the mobs with their megaphones, are acting responsibly.
Iām daydreaming of a world where the thrones arenāt as tall, where we donāt need to have a boot stamping on our face forever.
Throughout this essay, Iāve used the word ācancelā and the phrase ācancel cultureā, but that phrase isnāt great. Itās affirming a conservative frame of view. The timing isnāt great either; right-wing media loves to create and latch on to wedge issues, and ācancel cultureā is right up their alley.
A more zoomed-out way to look at it is that we are living in power culture. Power from mobs and power from thrones.
Maybe there is another way for us to set up our personal and professional relationships, and our fandoms and admirations, so that the power gaps and the stakes donāt have to be so intense.
One of the components in the world of thrones is centralization (which, in turn, is a consequence of capitalismās externalities problem). Large groups of people loving the same books, the same shows, the same apps, the same services. Thatās also what makes the falls so big, the disappointments so heartbreaking. A fave messing up so badly wouldnātāve mattered so much if that fave wasnāt so loved by so many. Weāre angry because we mourn the person we had fooled ourselves into thinking they were.
The first thing I will tell my child self when the time-machine comes is to stop expecting other people to be perfect. Itās OK if people are wrong and bad. Doesnāt mean itās OK that they remain good or bad, and it doesnāt mean that there isnāt someone else who deserves a chance on that now-vacant throne. Just means that I shouldnāt be so hung up on who I expect other people to be.