Updates to Roseanne post

A couple things about yesterday's post.

Again, I know there were similar things happening before the cancellation of Roseanne. It was after this incident that cancelling became the default weapon that is wielded to punish political enemies, and the knowledge of how to weild it became widespread and culturally acceptable.

Cancel Culture and Wokeism are not the same thing. I realize they're often conflated, but they're seperate phenomena. Wokeism often uses Canceling as a weapon, but so do the assholes on the Right.

Also, I'm not saying there shouldn't be any consequences for tweeting something racist like that. Some type of censure was definitely needed. In the case of Roseanne, at the time this happened, I thought it was justified. But in retrospect, the rush to destroy her, and the fear that silenced anyone who would say anything in her defence, were definitely bad things. Due process was created to temper passions and prevent us from doing things we may regret after the initial fury has died down, and that seems like it was a wise thing to invent.

Edit: Additional update - I’ve been given enough sources by readers to convince me that it is extremely likely that the Rosanne cancellation entirely justified, and necessary. It seems she’d been growing increasingly unhinged and belligerent, and absolutely unresponsive to the concerns of her coworkers and partners. The massive precipitous withdrawal of support was a last-straw from people who had exhausted all other options. People had learned the Charlie Sheen lesson of “don’t humor this sort of mental decline indefinitely.” It wasn’t a coordinated effort at character assassination.

This makes the incident’s status as the formalization of the playbook for cancellation particularly tragic. Despite being necessary and justified, it also demonstrated how such a thing is done successfully, and afterwards it was adopted as a tactic for culture warfare. :( Effective weapons are just as effective when used for ill.