Cancel Culture

This week alone, people were fired from the New York Times, the Niskanen Center, and Fox News for making conservatives mad https://t.co/hSNggiGT9N

— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) January 23, 2021

These are not the same thing and some are not seeing the differences.

The NYT fired an editor for saying she had chills while watching Biden being inaugurated. This is fine even if some conservatives thought it showed bias. It is very wrong for her to be fired and the anger/support is well founded. This without other tweets about how special the person herself is.  If the person was a bit of an asshole, it would be wrong.

Fox News is an ideological organization and someone was found by some noisy types as not following the conservative line enough. A sign of what these types are, perhaps, but nothing shocking. We know what Fox News is. Conservatives being mad at their "safe space" like that is nothing to be too upset about on the liberal side. It isn't the same thing at all. [This seems to be the reason; I saw something related to the call of Arizona for Biden, but not totally sure since it seems more than one person was moved.]

The organization fired someone for making a joke regarding lynching Pence if Biden wanted to show evidence of unity. Since the other side was no fan of him either. Obviously a joke, if a bit nasty. Such is okay if a bit off usually but Pence was actually at risk of being killed a few weeks ago this month. The matter is emphasized by the liberal types (including people I usually agree with) all very upset about some good guy being fired. I am not familiar with the person or organization, but the supporters suggest both are good eggs generally. 

But, not one referenced the Pence reality.  I speak of five at least people I am familiar with and/or support generally who in various degrees singled out this firing as particularly egregious. They act like it was just some run of the mill off color comment that conservative trolls get so upset about.

It's not. It is simply asinine to ignore the context, something that the "reality based community" is supposed to be attune about. Of course, we all have our biases and slip-ups there, but really, it isn't too hard to at least get an idea why this organization is so sensitive here. This is the case even if conservative trolls are being hypocritical. Such is normal. It doesn't erase that Pence was actually from reporting at risk of being killed. There was even a rope stringed outside among the crowd, one that very well might not have being totally symbolic.

People need to have perspective and it factors in regarding reactions. Please, have some human empathy and keep track of the situation. Yes, he apologized and wasn't being literal. But, an organization has to be careful, especially as the situation is still hot. Maybe, even then, they overreacted. Still, is it not even worth mentioning? When people are pressuring others to "cancel" -- an overblown term -- they should realize there needs to be some nuance involved. They surely point to such things when others overreact.

Look in the mirror.