There's also the whole ur-cancel culture of people wanting to "cancel" the Beatles and burning their albums back in the 60s; or evangelicals wanting to "cancel" Disney in the 90s because Scar seems a little gay to them and because Disney gave same-sex partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees back then.
That's a good point. There's a million things to criticize the term for, and one of them is that it sneakily implies a bunch of nonsense ideas like "this is a new thing that hasn't been a part of American society until recently." It's also almost only ever used for things conservatives get mad at. Ask them about Kaepernick or that AP journalist and you'll get an excuse for why those are different. The yearly outrage about starbucks cups isn't cancelling, but the imagined outrage about Aunt Jemima or Mr Potato Head is.
All-in-all, I don't think the term is productive and I personally dont use it
There's also the whole ur-cancel culture of people wanting to "cancel" the Beatles and burning their albums back in the 60s; or evangelicals wanting to "cancel" Disney in the 90s because Scar seems a little gay to them and because Disney gave same-sex partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees back then.
That's a good point. There's a million things to criticize the term for, and one of them is that it sneakily implies a bunch of nonsense ideas like "this is a new thing that hasn't been a part of American society until recently." It's also almost only ever used for things conservatives get mad at. Ask them about Kaepernick or that AP journalist and you'll get an excuse for why those are different. The yearly outrage about starbucks cups isn't cancelling, but the imagined outrage about Aunt Jemima or Mr Potato Head is.
All-in-all, I don't think the term is productive and I personally dont use it