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Open to Debate

Is Cancel Culture Toxic?

Open to Debate

Open to Debate

Society & Culture, Education, News

4.62.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You know the drill. Someone does, or says, something offensive. A public backlash -- typically on Twitter -- ensues. Then come the calls to "cancel" that person, brand, or institution. That usually means the loss of cultural cache, political clout, and often a job or career. While the term "cancelling" has roots in a misogynistic joke, it has come to be one of the most prominent tools of progressive activists. Many see "cancelling" as a modern-day means of holding people to account, calling out injustice, and breaking down ingrained systems of prejudice and exploitation, particularly for the historically marginalized. But others see it differently. They are sounding alarms about the emergence of a new cancel culture where digital mobs police our speech, invade our rights, and even put our physical safety at risk. They argue that cancel culture has created a society ruled by online censorship and eroded our public discourse. Against this backdrop, we ask: Is cancel culture toxic? Featuring Kmele Foster, Garry Kasparov, Erich Hatala Matthes and Karen Attiah. Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and

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inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at

0:26.9

Slack.com slash DHQ. It's a controversial form of ostracism, a tool in bringing down

0:36.5

those with power, cancelling. Some see it as accountability and a method of calling

0:41.8

attention to long-standing injustice. They say it's always been around. Others see a new

0:47.0

very-lin form of mob justice, which jeopardizes a person's safety and risks indefinite alienation.

0:53.6

Either way, in this modern era, social media has a decidedly amplifying effect. It's

0:59.4

against that background. We debate for and against this motion. Cancel culture is toxic.

1:05.5

Hi, everybody. And yes, we are talking about lately what's being called cancel culture,

1:12.1

the perception at least and possibly the reality that there has been an outbreak of people

1:17.7

being punished for the ideas they expressed through a process of public shaming that

1:22.0

has seemed to be silencing them to getting them ejected from positions of prominence even

1:27.2

to ending their careers. There is much disagreement on whether cancel culture is even real or exaggerated

1:33.7

or whether it's really something new and whether it is toxic to public discourse or a necessary

1:40.0

corrective to have these callouts. Cancel culture untrial. That's our debate. I'm John Donvan

1:46.2

and this is Intelligent Squared. All right, everybody. Now, you have a duty to perform

1:52.2

here in this program. And that is to act as the judge of the debate. Each one of you,

1:57.4

what we would like you to do is to tell us which side you feel argued the best. And we're

2:02.0

going to ask you to do that by voting on our motion. Cancel culture is toxic. Before you've

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