26/08/2020
Many groups in society, including at the moment, those who are flavour of the month with right wing commentators such as transgender people or black women, are accused of being part of a new phenomenon, namely “cancel culture”. This refers to celebrities or politicians – often economically privileged themselves - allegedly being subject to vexatious cancellations of events and fundraising after they have twittered themselves out with posts about the groups in society they do not like. Most recently, millionaire author Joanne Rowling has accused trans campaigners of being part of “cancel culture”. US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the diverse districts of East Bronx, Queens and Rikers Island in New York City, has little time for the complaints of those who feel as Ms Rowling does. Calmly addressing the hysterical debate about free speech, Ms Ocasio-Cortez this week wrote “Look, the term Cancel Culture comes from entertainment. As though the person complaining has the right to a large captive audience and then is a victim if people choose voluntarily to take their support elsewhere. The odds are that you're not actually being cancelled, just being held accountable for what you have said using your free speech.” She concluded “The real people being cancelled, are usually those long since denied a fair hearing to begin with, such as Palestinians, anti-imperialists, anticapitalists and so on and so forth. Not spicy contrarians who want to play devil's advocate with your basic rights in the “New York Times”. “ Thanks to the queer feminist blog Thistlecake for that interesting piece.
