Cancel Culture: Its Origins and Implications for America

As Americans we have had it good for so long that we often take important things for granted until they are about to be taken away. As recently as five or six years ago, who would have thought that America’s dominant social media platforms, such as Facebook, Google-You Tube, or Twitter would assault their host country’s First Amendment rights by engaging in the silencing of a huge number of its users through censorship, cancellation and deplatforming? Of all the impediments to America’s progress on every front, censorship and the cancel culture probably rank right at the top. Many of the younger generation accept cancel culture as being part of depersonalized relationships that social media has fostered. It seems many have gotten used to cyberbullying and the flippant cancellation of people, ideas and relationships—all facilitated with just a few clicks.