Cancel culture used to control speech?

[Meow Mix]

I am sick to death of "cancel culture," and all the other "WOKE" nonsense I'm inundated with every day.

When I was a kid, we went outside and played without supervision -- and we fell down, and hurt ourselves, and developed antibodies while we were doing it. Almost nobody was allergic to peanuts. Supervision was minimal and we experienced a kind of joyful freedom.

When I got to high school, I was introduced to Shakespeare. Guess what --- Shylock was a Jew, and Othello was a black man tupping a white ewe (that's almost a quote). And Romeo and Juliet had sex when she was just 13! And we lived.

We knew about the bigotry that existed, yet we read the "n-word" in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" without learning to hate, and we understood that Tchaikovsky's "Chinese Dance" wasn't meant to demean, just to express how that culture appeared to them at the time.

I even understand that the first Prime Minister of Canada was not perfect, and had anti-Indian sentiments, and that many great American leaders owned slaves -- because that's how it was THEN.

Have we become so completely stupid that we are incapable of realizing that every human who ever lived, lived and understood the world in their own time, and according to the lights that existed then?

I HATE "Woke" rubbish and Cancel Culture.

What exactly are you talking about?

I think overprotection of children from being outside has nothing to do with "woke" or "cancel culture." Who is trying to cancel Shakespeare or Harper Lee? Not a majority of people, I'd assure you.

What about Canada's PM and American founders? What's wrong with recognizing that what they did was wrong? They don't need to be glorified and deified. What are you arguing here?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

*Mod Post* Moved to the Covid 19 forum. *Mod Post*

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Would you mind clarifying how the above relates or applies to the stories in the OP?

Would you read the topic, and tell me how I did not? The subject asks about "cancel culture." I spoke to precisely that. It doesn't matter that I chose oher examples than those posted in the OP.

 

[Meow Mix]

Would you read the topic, and tell me how I did not? The subject asks about "cancel culture." I spoke to precisely that. It doesn't matter that I chose oher examples than those posted in the OP.

But the only thing that seemed like it might be cancel culture was about some books that there are no large or concerted efforts to remove (and books are usually removed by conservatives concerned about sex, not "woke" reasons, on average)

Also you commented about American founding fathers and a Canadian PM but made no comment about how they're cancelled. I assume statues?

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

What exactly are you talking about?

I think overprotection of children from being outside has nothing to do with "woke" or "cancel culture." Who is trying to cancel Shakespeare or Harper Lee? Not a majority of people, I'd assure you.

What about Canada's PM and American founders? What's wrong with recognizing that what they did was wrong? They don't need to be glorified and deified. What are you arguing here?

I am suggesting -- perhaps something that isn't clear to everybody -- that time and place are a part of human history. "Cancel culture" is all about trying to make the accomplishments of people -- people who, for better or worse, contributed immensely to our present -- seem irrelevant because they didn't see the world the way we do today.

Why would you expect them to? They died long before today -- they lived in their own time, in the world and cultures in which they found themselves.

I should tell you, by the way, that at the Globe Theatre in London (the current "home of Shakespeare"), actors are advising audiences that they might see things that are difficult -- and giving them advice on where they can find counseling if Shakespeare's plays have shocked them into PTSD.

There's nothing wrong with recognizing what people from our past did wrong -- but if that's the case, then there's also nothing wrong with recognizing what they did RIGHT. Or do you suppose we should look only at the negatives of every historical figure?

 

[Meow Mix]

I am suggesting -- perhaps something that isn't clear to everybody -- that time and place are a part of human history. "Cancel culture" is all about trying to make the accomplishments of people -- people who, for better or worse, contributed immensely to our present -- seem irrelevant because they didn't see the world the way we do today.

Why would you expect them to? They died long before today -- they lived in their own time, in the world and cultures in which they found themselves.

I should tell you, by the way, that at the Globe Theatre in London (the current "home of Shakespeare"), actors are advising audiences that they might see things that are difficult -- and giving them advice on where they can find counseling if Shakespeare's plays have shocked them into PTSD.

There's nothing wrong with recognizing what people from our past did wrong -- but if that's the case, then there's also nothing wrong with recognizing what they did RIGHT. Or do you suppose we should look only at the negatives of every historical figure?

Who is rejecting the thing that troubling figures did in the past?

When taking down Confederate statues for instance, nobody is saying "hey, this guy accomplished nothing." They're saying, "maybe we shouldn't deify a dude that fought to own other people." It's not erasing history: you can still go to a Civil War museum or open a book to see the history, and read about peoples' accomplishments.

The notion is that maybe people with extremely problematic aspects to their personages shouldn't be glorified. I still learned about the American founding fathers in my undergrad history classes. Their accomplishments were still discussed. They just weren't sugar coated, and they were presented as flesh and blood people that lived and did some good things, some horrible things. Maybe it's best not to deify them.

As for offering people support for things they might encounter during a play, what's wrong with that? Maybe that's something that should have been accessible all along.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

This is so laughably absurd that I judge it's not worth a serious response.

Welcome to RF, I guess. I can tell you'll make some waves

It's a pretty standard and normal post from him.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

As for offering people support for things they might encounter during a play, what's wrong with that? Maybe that's something that should have been accessible all along.

Because you can't pad life and the evidence indicates that if anything trigger warnings make things worse.

 

[Meow Mix]

Because you can't pad life and the evidence indicates that if anything trigger warnings make things worse.

Well, that prompted me to check, and it looks like they do have little to no benefit despite being well meaning. Okay then.

 

[John53]

Poe's Law is a colloquialism for when someone is behaving in such a stereotypical and absurd way that it's difficult to tell whether they're serious or whether they're a troll.

I knew about poe but I don't understand WOKE. Someone called me WOKE a few weeks back and I still don't know if I should be insulted or flattered.

 

[Meow Mix]

I knew about poe but I don't understand WOKE. Someone called me WOKE a few weeks back and I still don't know if I should be insulted or flattered.

Probably flattered. While there is probably such a thing as "too much wokeness," it's generally a snarl word used for politeness and considering nuance.

 

[John53]

Probably flattered. While there is probably such a thing as "too much wokeness," it's generally a snarl word used for politeness and considering nuance.

I had to google snarl word.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I knew about poe but I don't understand WOKE. Someone called me WOKE a few weeks back and I still don't know if I should be insulted or flattered.

I wouldn't be flattered, but a lot of Woke, PC, SJW literature and videos and such strongly reminds me of when I was a hardened Evangelical Conservative with a rigidly dogmatic morality and view of the world, desires for censorship, shame and guilt, blaming a devil for everything, one article even reminded me the line "once I was blind now I see."

 

[John53]

I wouldn't be flattered, but a lot of Woke, PC, SJW literature and videos and such strongly reminds me of when I was a hardened Evangelical Conservative with a rigidly dogmatic morality and view of the world, desires for censorship, shame and guilt, blaming a devil for everything, one article even reminded me the line "once I was blind now I see."

I would never have guessed evangelical conservative. I mean that as a compliment.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I am sick to death of "cancel culture," and all the other "WOKE" nonsense I'm inundated with every day.

When I was a kid, we went outside and played without supervision -- and we fell down, and hurt ourselves, and developed antibodies while we were doing it. Almost nobody was allergic to peanuts. Supervision was minimal and we experienced a kind of joyful freedom.

When I got to high school, I was introduced to Shakespeare. Guess what --- Shylock was a Jew, and Othello was a black man tupping a white ewe (that's almost a quote). And Romeo and Juliet had sex when she was just 13! And we lived.

We knew about the bigotry that existed, yet we read the "n-word" in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" without learning to hate, and we understood that Tchaikovsky's "Chinese Dance" wasn't meant to demean, just to express how that culture appeared to them at the time.

I even understand that the first Prime Minister of Canada was not perfect, and had anti-Indian sentiments, and that many great American leaders owned slaves -- because that's how it was THEN.

Have we become so completely stupid that we are incapable of realizing that every human who ever lived, lived and understood the world in their own time, and according to the lights that existed then?

I HATE "Woke" rubbish and Cancel Culture.

I agree. There used to be a time where people were a lot tougher, able to handle a bump and scrape, were not fazed about language, and were able to recognize things in context and able to tell the difference.

 

[Twilight Hue]

What exactly are you talking about?

I think overprotection of children from being outside has nothing to do with "woke" or "cancel culture." Who is trying to cancel Shakespeare or Harper Lee? Not a majority of people, I'd assure you.

They certainly are trying to rewrite history and are trying to force a view through cancel culture and guilting people in attempts to conform others to their way of thinking.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I would never have guessed evangelical conservative. I mean that as a compliment.

Recovery has been a process.

 

[Meow Mix]

They certainly are trying to rewrite history and are trying to force a view through cancel culture and guilting people in attempts to conform others to their way of thinking.

Who? What history is being rewritten? How?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

They certainly are trying to rewrite history and are trying to force a view through cancel culture and guilting people in attempts to conform others to their way of thinking.

Asserting historic fact is not rewriting history. Rewriting is trying to make anyone look infallible or better than they were. Rewriting history is claiming Washington freed his slaves, insisting the Civil War wasn't about slavery, and downplaying the reality of systemic oppression that has been detrimental for many groups of people in America, the land that promises equal rights but has never legally protected that Constitutional entitlement for all groups amd citizens.

 

[Meow Mix]

I wouldn't be flattered, but a lot of Woke, PC, SJW literature and videos and such strongly reminds me of when I was a hardened Evangelical Conservative with a rigidly dogmatic morality and view of the world, desires for censorship, shame and guilt, blaming a devil for everything, one article even reminded me the line "once I was blind now I see."

You'd get called woke by a lot of people. That's why I'm saying flattered. To some people woke is anything more accepting and less derogatory than bigotry.