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The Dig

“Cancel Culture” w/ Moira Weigel, Nikhil Pal Singh, Patrick Blanchfield

The Dig

Daniel Denvir

News, Politics

4.81.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2021

⏱️ 126 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is so-called cancel culture? Why has it suddenly emerged as arguably the issue in right-wing politics? How does today’s cancel culture discourse differ from the anti-PC discourse that first emerged in the early 1990s? How do we distinguish between liberal opponents of PC like Jonathan Chain and right-wing ones like Donald Trump? And then, finally, is there still a there there? Some problems with The Discourse that we should reflect upon? Readings: Some “Politically Incorrect” Pathways Through PC by Stuart Hall ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy by Moira Weigel theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump The Use of Free Speech in Society by Asad Haider versobooks.com/blogs/4793-the-use-of-free-speech-in-society Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at patreon.com

0:05.1

and by verso books which has loads of great left-wing titles. Perfect for dig listeners like you.

0:12.7

One that you might like is breaking things at work. The Bloodites are right about why you hate your

0:18.4

job by Gavin Mueller. Breaking things at work is an innovative rethinking of labor and machines,

0:25.7

leaping from textile mills to algorithms, from existentially threatened knife cutters of rural

0:31.6

Germany to surveillance-sevading truckers driving across the continental United States. Mueller argues

0:38.8

that the future stability and empowerment of working-class movements will depend on subverting

0:44.4

these technologies and preventing their spread wherever possible. The task is intimidating,

0:51.4

but the seeds of this resistance are already present in the neoludite efforts of hackers,

0:56.8

pirates, and dark web users who are challenging surveillance and control, often through older

1:03.1

systems of communication technology. Breaking things at work, the Bloodites are right about why you

1:10.2

hate your job by Gavin Mueller, out now from verso books. Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from

1:27.2

Jacobin magazine. My name is Daniel Denver and I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island.

1:33.1

What is so-called cancel culture? Why has it emerged as arguably the issue in right-wing politics?

1:42.0

Why, in other words, are conservatives so focused on Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head at a time when they

1:48.1

can't think of any sort of compelling politics to oppose Joe Biden's big spending? And how does

1:54.6

today's cancel culture discourse differ from the anti-PC politics that first emerged in the early

2:00.9

1990s? How do we distinguish between liberal opponents of PC like Jonathan Chate and right-wing

2:07.2

ones like Donald Trump? And what does the fact that they share this single obsession reveal?

2:12.9

And then, finally, is there or there? However, fundamentally reactionary and bad faith in

2:18.6

mystifying the cancel culture discourse is. How much of a smoke screen it provides for all

2:24.3

sorts of attacks on every sort of movement for freedom? Are there indeed ways that we treat one

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