What 'cancel culture' and its critics get wrong

All cultures cancel certain opinions. What cancel culture does is different.

A man with a scribble over his face.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AaronAmat/iStock, Miodrag Kitanovic/iStock, Mr_Lemon/iStock)

The problem with "cancel culture" has nothing to do with the act of cancelation.

That's something those behind the trend and those standing against it need to recognize. The effort to excommunicate from public life insufficiently "woke" (morally progressive) journalists, writers, comedians, and other prominent figures, including trying to get them fired, is likely to backfire. But not because the act of social and cultural cancelation itself is illegitimate or egregious.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.