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I don’t the claim is that cancel culture is new, but the rate and method is new. It happens more frequently for different topics.

That’s what I think of when I hear “cancel culture.” When you present an example from the 18th century, that’s not a very useful rebuttal. It seems like you either don’t understand, are deflecting, or using a “but all lives matter” argument.



The method and rate aren’t new.

The method is “people tell others you’re an asshole”.

The rate is “quickly”. For most people in the 1700s, the news only has to go a few miles to spread to basically everyone you know.

Ask Aaron Burr. Not just canceled in short order, but remembered for it in a hit musical centuries later.


I remember the pr person fired during her flight to South Africa because of the hundred thousand retweets. Thats new and that’s much faster.

Aaron Burr wasn’t cancelled over a single message within twelve hours.

(Thousands of similar stories)


You remember her nearly a decade later because it’s rare. (She’s also doing fine: https://www.vox.com/2018/1/19/16911074/justine-sacco-iac-mat...)

People have irreparably ruined their reputations in less time than a plane flight. Burr did it in a single instant.


The woman in question was a VP of communications who tweeted the following:

>Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!

It is not hard to see why a company would fire a VP of communications who tweeted this. In general, you have to be careful about what you do and say in public when you have a senior position within a company. This is nothing new.

In the bad old days, people used to get fired when their employer found out that they were having a gay affair, or had a mixed race child. Now people are more likely to get fired for saying or doing racist or homophobic things. To me this seems like progress.




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