Meaning of cancel culture | Babel Free

Definitions

The cultural phenomenon of publicly shaming, rejecting, and ceasing to provide support to people, companies, stores, etc. that are deemed unacceptable, and calling on others to boycott them.

derogatory, neologism, often, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“With roots in Black Twitter, cancel culture is an unavoidable mainstay of our infotainment age. In an era of too much everything—TV, opinions, news—we’ve come to rely on a vocabulary of consolidation: likes, tweets, emoji. Cancel culture is one of these argots—a governor, a self-regulatory device I have come to wield with pride (if infrequent recklessness). In the collective, the gesture is absolute: we can’t. We’re done. And so we asphyxiate support from a notable cause or figure. Roseanne Barr referred to Valerie Jarrett as an ape? Cancelled. Harvey Weinstein was outed as a sexual predator? Cancelled.”

“In the past, we dismissed people and institutionalized doing so as law and unwritten laws. Today, I fear that we are making dismissing people the cool thing to do with “cancel culture.””

“An unfair journalistic hit has now cost a capable attorney his job. It’s absurd. Cancel culture has reared its ugly head ... again.”

“"[…] Many students have adopted the posture of cancel culture, preventing people they don’t agree with from speaking,” Mr. Finkielkraut told me last month.”

“One of their political weapons is cancel culture, driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.”

“In a statement condemning “cancel culture,” Stewart warned taking down the monument would set a bad precedent.”

CEFR level