Cancelled cancel culture

All things philosophical, related to belief and / or religions of any and all sorts.
Personal philosophy welcomed.
User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Cancelled cancel culture

Post by Gob »

Ricky Gervais has continued to slam 'cancel culture' as he defended the use of free speech in a new interview.

Image

The comedian, 59, who delivered a series of controversial gags at the 77th Golden Globes awards ceremony back in January, described 'wokeness' as 'a weird sort of fascism' amid calls for 'the free exchange of information and ideas.'

He said: 'There's this new weird sort of fascism of people thinking they know what you can say and what you can't and it's a really weird thing. Just because you're offended it doesn't mean you're right.'

The After Life creator shared his thoughts on online shaming after 150 celebrated authors, academics and journalists including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and Noam Chomsky signed a letter criticising 'cancel culture'.

The media personality said on talkRadio earlier this month: 'There's this new trendy myth that people who want free speech want to say awful things all the time.

'It's just isn't true, it protects everyone. If you're mildly left-wing on Twitter, you're suddenly Trotsky, right?

'If you're mildly conservative, you're Hitler and if you're centrist and you look at both arguments, you're a coward. Just because you're offended it doesn't mean you're right.'

A few days earlier, the actor said his hit TV show The Office would struggle to air today due to online 'outrage mobs'.

The screen star, who played David Brent in the BBC mockumentary, said broadcasters are now too afraid to take risks when it comes to content.

The programme, set at a paper firm in Slough, Berkshire, sees the character frequently insult minorities as he grapples with political correctness.

Yet The Office, which aired from 2001 to 2002, won numerous Baftas and Golden Globes and is widely seen as one of the best British comedies ever made.

Ricky said viewers see Brent as a joke and are not laughing with him, but he fears any sense of irony is lost on audiences today.
What does 'cancel culture' mean?

Cancel culture is a new phrase to describe a mob mentality to boycott certain products, people or programs.

It is most commonly associated with people who have caused offence through their actions or through something they have said.

But the concept has grown particularly prevalent over the past five years and is making it 'difficult' for comedians in particular - given certain comedic tropes have not aged well.

From the time #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty began trending on Twitter to JK Rowling being 'cancelled' for her divisive views on transgender people, the process involves refusing to celebrate or acknowledge a person or their work.

He told Times Radio: 'Now [The Office] would suffer because people would take things literally. There are these outrage mobs who take things out of context.

'This was a show about everything — it was about difference, it was about sex, race, all the things that people fear to even be discussed or talked about now, in case they say the wrong thing and they are cancelled.

'The BBC have got more and more careful, people want to keep their jobs, so would worry about some of the subjects and jokes, even though they were clearly ironic and we were laughing at this buffoon being uncomfortable around difference.

'I think if this was put out now, some people have lost their sense of irony and context.'

His comments came on the 19th anniversary of The Office, which was also turned into a Christmas special in 2003 and a 2016 film spin off David Brent: Life on the Road.

In February, Ricky spoke out against the stars who used their acceptance speeches to lecture about politics, human rights and animal welfare at this year's Academy Awards.

The funnyman took to Twitter saying he 'tried to warn' the A-list stars not to preach, while viewers watching at home called the event the 'wokest Oscars ever'.

He wrote: 'I have nothing against the most famous people in the world using their privileged, global platform to tell the world what they believe. I even agree with most of it.

'I just tried to warn them that when they lecture everyday, hard working people, it has the opposite effect. Peace.'

Last week, a group of public figures signed a letter which hit out at 'cancel culture' after JK Rowling was accused of ridiculing women being called 'people who menstruate'.

The Harry Potter author, 54, backed the movement, spearheaded by Pulitzer-prize winning writer Anne Applebaum who warned 'Twitter mobs' including Donald Trump were placing 'very important restraints on freedom of speech'.

She told the BBC: 'There are a lot of writers, artists and journalists who are afraid of approaching certain subjects, afraid of crossing lines or even lacking sufficient zeal for particular subjects because they're afraid of their peers.'

Margaret, the author of The Handmaid's Tale, added her name despite publicly disagreeing with the Harry Potter author.

The letter has been supported by household names from the left and right-wings of the political spectrum who have united around the cause.

The document, published in Harper's, calls for: 'The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted and demands that they want to uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter speech from all quarters.'

It adds: 'It is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought.'
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Exactly
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
Scooter
Posts: 16540
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:04 pm
Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by Scooter »

JK Rowling was accused of ridiculing women being called 'people who menstruate'
You see, here is one of the problems that has arisen again and again in this debate. "Women" were never being called "people who menstruate". There was a piece on menstrual health whose title used the term "people who menstruate" to be inclusive of both women as well as those identify as trans men who also menstruate because they still have a functioning uterus. By mocking the title, Rowling, in spite of her oft repeated claim of being trans-supportive, was, as is her wont, once again attempting to erase the identity of a certain segment of trans people. By misstating it as "Rowling was accused of ridiculing women being called 'people who menstruate'", this piece continues the effort of trying to make Rowling's critics sound ridiculous.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Tough titty on the 4 trans people concerned. Women menstruate - men don't. End of that story.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by BoSoxGal »

MajGenl.Meade wrote:
Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:36 pm
Tough titty on the 4 trans people concerned. Women menstruate - men don't. End of that story.
What a transphobic POS you are, Meade.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Why do you say that, oh pleasant one? Give a rational explanation. I have no phobia about transexual people. They don't scare me in the least.

How many persons transitioning from woman to man and still menstruating are there, oh all-knowing one? If they ain't happy with how some other people FEEL about what menstruating means, then all 3 of them should just put up and shut up. Just as you are only too happy to advise everybody else to do.

What scares me is when the tail wags the dog.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
TPFKA@W
Posts: 4833
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:50 am

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by TPFKA@W »

MajGenl.Meade wrote:
Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:36 pm
Tough titty on the 4 trans people concerned. Women menstruate - men don't. End of that story.

yOu oUTrAEOUs PeRsOn YoU! yOU mUsT ToE ThE pArTy LiNe oR yOu wIlL Be cAncElLeD!

Even transphobes need love so in that spirit let me say that although I disagree with you, I can still respect you. So little of that in the world these days. It is an all or nothing culture in that respect any more.

User avatar
Guinevere
Posts: 8989
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:01 pm

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by Guinevere »

Much ado about nothing. The right to free speech has never included the right to make me listen, or purchase a ticket. Even George Carlin understood that.

People have been boycotting commercial activity from companies they disagree with for as long as I have been alive, and certainly longer. A performer is no different.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

TPFKA@W wrote:
Wed Jul 15, 2020 4:33 pm
MajGenl.Meade wrote:
Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:36 pm
Tough titty on the 4 trans people concerned. Women menstruate - men don't. End of that story.

yOu oUTrAEOUs PeRsOn YoU! yOU mUsT ToE ThE pArTy LiNe oR yOu wIlL Be cAncElLeD!

Even transphobes need love so in that spirit let me say that although I disagree with you, I can still respect you. So little of that in the world these days. It is an all or nothing culture in that respect any more.
:ok :lol:
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by Gob »

Interesting. In a debate about the freedom to hold and express views, one side of the trans debate attack the other with such deeply considered and rational arguments such as "What a transphobic POS you are, Meade."

Hint to all, there's more to freedom of speech, and the "cancel culture" than J K Rowling's views...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by BoSoxGal »

Gob wrote:
Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:33 am
Interesting. In a debate about the freedom to hold and express views, one side of the trans debate attack the other with such deeply considered and rational arguments such as "What a transphobic POS you are, Meade."

Hint to all, there's more to freedom of speech, and the "cancel culture" than J K Rowling's views...
To be honest in presenting the evidence, I attempted to engage Meade thoughtfully and without rudeness. But yes, his persistent asshole replies prompted me to call him out as a POS, something I’ve noticed more and more in his posts here on issues of race and sexism, same as I’ve noticed with a number of you. I’m not going to be polite to assholes, sorry. Not sorry. Fuck off.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Let's take a look at your first post in the relevant thread in which you busily engaged me "thoughtfully and without rudeness" shall we?
BoSoxGal wrote:
Tue Jul 14, 2020 6:07 pm
You know, it basically makes you an asshole to laugh off the feelings of people in the minority struggling in a toxic social construct who just ask a small thing - call them the name they wish and the pronouns they wish.

A real Christian, who really believes in loving people, would put his fucking arrogance aside and show his love by acknowledging, accepting and acquiescing to these very modest parameters. It does you no harm. Refusal is the sign of a hostile prick.
Yes, I see where you really kept it at an honest level of discussion from the get-go

You don't read very well do you? My views about race are about the same as yours BSG but without the vulgar language. And I repeatedly expressed my intent to show respect by using people's names. You appear to believe I advocate going around shouting "he" or "she" at random individuals in the hope I will offend a binary person. No, but if I'm asked to use the pronoun "they" by such a person, I will regard it instead as a request not to use he or she. And that'll be sufficient.

To use a word you will understand, (deleted)
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by BoSoxGal »

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Full of pride and righteousness, zero ability to follow the first and greatest commandment. Typical fake Christian.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
Crackpot
Posts: 11264
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:59 am
Location: Michigan

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by Crackpot »

Like looking in a mirror
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by BoSoxGal »

Crackpot wrote:
Thu Jul 16, 2020 3:25 pm
Like looking in a mirror
Except I don’t hold myself out to be a Christian like the fake ones around here. Y’all are real good at the judgy bit from the Old Testament, but pretty shitty at doing the core message of the New Testament. It’s amusing and entirely unsurprising.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

BoSoxGal wrote:
Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:59 pm
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Full of pride and righteousness, zero ability to follow the first and greatest commandment. Typical fake Christian.
That is "You shall have no other Gods before me". Unless you refer to the passage where Jesus says the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all one's heart, all one's soul and all one's mind". He goes on to say that "Love your neighbor as yourself" which is "like unto it". And upon those two hang the whole of the Law and the Prophets.

I don't understand where you see either pride or righteousness when all I did was copy and paste your own words proving you to be a false witness. Now you've compounded your lies with more ignorance and rudeness.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
TPFKA@W
Posts: 4833
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:50 am

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by TPFKA@W »

Now you've compounded your lies with more ignorance and rudeness.
It's her strong point.

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by BoSoxGal »

13E41326-4E62-4869-82BC-9883E4A4B28F.jpeg
This is as much honor as you do to Jesus by your lived example, Meade. So utterly full of shit.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Most unpleasant. The oddest part is that you know it's not true. Sad.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Cancelled cancel culture

Post by BoSoxGal »

MajGenl.Meade wrote:
Thu Jul 16, 2020 4:29 pm
Most unpleasant. The oddest part is that you know it's not true. Sad.
Not at all; I truly believe you’re a total hypocrite. Your contempt for trans people oozes through every post on the subject and anyone with so much contempt and self righteousness toward his fellow humans is quite simply not following the greatest commandment of Jesus - love each other as I have loved you.

Twat.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Post Reply