Not all that controversial. I looked for a study. A Harvard Caps-Harris poll found 36% saw cancel culture as a major problem, 32% saw it as a moderate problem, 20% saw it as a small problem and 13% saw it as no problem. That’s 88% that see cancel culture as a problem. I think the tide may be changing. Some of what spoke about reminded me of Erik Erickson. He dealt most with children but he talked suggest reinforcing the positive behavior you want to see instead of reinforcing the bad behavior. For instance, instead of tell a child ‘stop running inside’ you tell them ‘please walk inside’. Instead of ‘don’t tell a lie’ you tell them ‘tell the truth’. The first will give them an identity of a wrong doer a bad person the second tells them what’s expected of them and shows you believe they can do it. With cancel culture we could instead of saying ‘You dirty Terf. You should die!’ We could tell them ‘Can we think of ways to provide space for trans women as women in feminist space?’ One invites dialogue and one does not. I will admit it’s very hard to change your mind from negatives. I see people talk to children in negative ways and I feel for them and try to reinforce the positive if I’m in a position to. Speaking negatively to people is very common maybe too common.
