"The sheer width of the Cancel Shroud is so all-encompassing that relatively innocuous acts are regularly deemed serious enough to upend someone’s life."
As an attorney, I'm a big free speech fan. Everything about this goes against the very creed of liberty. I recall once years ago, using the "N" word in the following fashion: my uncle of…
"The sheer width of the Cancel Shroud is so all-encompassing that relatively innocuous acts are regularly deemed serious enough to upend someone’s life."
As an attorney, I'm a big free speech fan. Everything about this goes against the very creed of liberty. I recall once years ago, using the "N" word in the following fashion: my uncle often made racist comments or jokes against black people, and I found it crude and offensive, but he would just laugh me off. So one day in front of my grandmother (his mother-in-law, in front of whom he would never dream of speaking that way) I had an opportunity to say something to the effect of "Yeah Don, we sure wouldn't want the "N"s around, would we?" She pricked up her ears in shock; he turned beet red in shame. I was a white person using the word for the specific purpose of undermining white supremacy, but this cancel culture makes no such exception. Talk about chilling.... I also remember a white sheriff asking me two decades ago, when I was a criminal defense attorney: "What word can a black man call a white man and go to jail?" Which is to say, the distinction is patently racist.... A criminal punishment meted out (or not) solely based on skin color -- and also without regard to INTENT. Scary times. Great piece!
"The sheer width of the Cancel Shroud is so all-encompassing that relatively innocuous acts are regularly deemed serious enough to upend someone’s life."
As an attorney, I'm a big free speech fan. Everything about this goes against the very creed of liberty. I recall once years ago, using the "N" word in the following fashion: my uncle often made racist comments or jokes against black people, and I found it crude and offensive, but he would just laugh me off. So one day in front of my grandmother (his mother-in-law, in front of whom he would never dream of speaking that way) I had an opportunity to say something to the effect of "Yeah Don, we sure wouldn't want the "N"s around, would we?" She pricked up her ears in shock; he turned beet red in shame. I was a white person using the word for the specific purpose of undermining white supremacy, but this cancel culture makes no such exception. Talk about chilling.... I also remember a white sheriff asking me two decades ago, when I was a criminal defense attorney: "What word can a black man call a white man and go to jail?" Which is to say, the distinction is patently racist.... A criminal punishment meted out (or not) solely based on skin color -- and also without regard to INTENT. Scary times. Great piece!