How We Know Cancel Culture is Fake
Between the never-ending accusations of “wokeness” directed at the left and the endless examples of cancel culture on the right, like the NFL boycott, we are not left wanting for more fodder in the culture wars. Talking heads paint the picture of liberal and conservative leaders, respectively, meeting weekly to determine which cancellation will make the airwaves next. Simultaneously, the right will attempt to claim that they never cancel anything and are the shining examples of being the final guardians of freedom, despite overwhelming evidence that’s untrue.
When we ignore the narratives, then, what is left to blame for this ongoing culture war? It’s not new. It’s traffic. Traffic to Youtube. Traffic to news outlets. Traffic to blogs. Traffic to Reddit threads. In the simplest terms, our current form of capitalism rewards cancel culture to the tune of billions every year. Or put another way: Our culture continues to reward the wrong work.
Much like an Amazon seller looking for the next best selling product, there are countless prolific operatives across the political spectrum who are looking for the next big thing to cancel or to be outraged about. The traffic they may drive to their platform is what drives them — not loyalty to any ideology.
These crafty individuals are leveraging a broken system whose algorithms elevate popular content, regardless of how incendiary it is, and drown out the rest. The individual content creators are responsible for fanning the flames, but tech companies must answer as well.
When the next cancellation happens, forget blaming the “left” or the “right.” It’s not a collective. It’s individuals. And we won’t run out of this ambition as long as the prospect of short-term profit persists.
