Do you know anyone who’s been cancelled? No, me neither. Yet not a day goes by without a politician, comedian, author or historian claiming — on social media, in the pages of mass-circulation newspapers, and flagship news shows - that “cancel culture” represents a threat to free speech or a proper celebration of our nation’s heritage (ie, one that doesn’t mention slavery or anything else uncomfortably icky).
As Booker prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo noted recently, so-called cancel culture currently represents the challenging of established and often bigoted behaviour and attitudes by historically silenced voices. The cry of cancellation is yet another way by which those in charge of the discourse play the victim card (see also the tedious use of “woke” as a stick with which to beat anything liberal or progressive, most recently by Oliver Dowden).
