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Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

bbc.com

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Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#591

Post by mvc »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #485
mc32 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be so, but you don’t want to end up being an unwitting victim. One of the first instances early on on Twitter was that young marketing woman going to South Africa making a sarcastic anti-racism tweet before boarding only to learn after landing a brouhaha was brewing leading to her firing because the mob wanted to see it as racist.

“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” I'm having a hard time seeing this as 'anti-racism', even if the 'punchline' hinges on the uncomfortable truth that black africans are disproportionately the victims of HIV, it is very much punching down. Is it in very bad taste? absolutely yes. Is it something that needed to be #1 trending on twitter? no. Is it something that should noticeably alter…

When your job is PR, when you have a PR disaster you might have trouble finding another job until you figure out how to demonstrate to future employers that you have learned something from the experience.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#592

Post by [deleted] »

UncleMeat wrote: post #484
swayvil wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancel culture used to be just a bear in woods. Scary but not super scary. Now it's Godzilla stomping through Seattle. It is magnified vastly by social media. That makes a big difference. And 10x that power when the engines of social media are in the hands of the cancellers, as appears to be the case.

It was just never scary to social conservatives. Gay people got "cancelled" so hard they were thrown in jail and disowned from their families.

[deleted]

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#593

Post by hattmall »

mvc wrote: post #581
nine_k wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even sure it's a majority, just a very vocal and intolerant group, seen by many non-participants as doing a virtuous thing, fighting for social justice. Of course most businesses would not oppose such a force, because otherwise they will be a target themselves, and enough of a public opinion would be against them, at least vaguely. They have everything to lose, and very little to win if they do not conform. T…

What was the social justice being fought for when Colin Kaepernick was cancelled?

Quality of football. Kaepernick wasn't that good. Take a mediocre player brings in a controversy and its not worth the gamble. Have him out of the league and his skill falls further. What's more telling is that he is still talked about, most similar talent football players simply fall to the wayside. If he had been good he would have been playing football.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#594

Post by mvc »

hattmall wrote: post #593
mvc wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the social justice being fought for when Colin Kaepernick was cancelled?

Quality of football. Kaepernick wasn't that good. Take a mediocre player brings in a controversy and its not worth the gamble. Have him out of the league and his skill falls further. What's more telling is that he is still talked about, most similar talent football players simply fall to the wayside. If he had been good he would have been playing football.

Funny how it took 6 whole seasons to figure that out. Must have been a coincidence to do so when a lot of NFL fans are tweeting out messages saying they'll boycott the league if it doesn't cancel him due to his "disrespect for the flag" (a flag I saw recently being used at the capitol to beat up on one of those blue lives that I heard matter so much).

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#595

Post by swayvil »

taurath wrote: post #536
swayvil wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancel culture used to be just a bear in woods. Scary but not super scary. Now it's Godzilla stomping through Seattle. It is magnified vastly by social media. That makes a big difference. And 10x that power when the engines of social media are in the hands of the cancellers, as appears to be the case.

Is it? Or are we all working off of anecdotes here. Do you have data to back that up? Further - it was pretty scary getting cancelled by my parents and community when I came out. I’m glad it wasn’t scary for you.

Yes. It was scary. And now it is much more scary.

The present, much greater, scariness in no way diminishes the prior scariness.

And it was, and is, scary for many many more than just the "gays". Get some perspective here.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#596

Post by rayiner »

jtbayly wrote: post #564
rayiner wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She was fired for saying that Muslims and Christians worship the same god, which is literally heresy according to many Christians: https://www.npr.org/2015/12/20/460480698/do-christians-and-m... . Jews and Muslims reject the trinity, which is an essential part of the confession of faith in most branches of Christianity. So it’s quite loaded to say that the Jewish and Muslim god is “the same” as the Christian god.

Right. That’s my point. It’s simply not an example of cancel culture.

Yes I’m agreeing, just elaborating. It’s like Planned Parenthood firing an executive for being a pro-life activist. That’s not cancel culture. The NYT doing the same would be.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#597

Post by ihartley »

hda2 wrote: post #573
dragonwriter wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> haven't heard of conservatives getting random kids on twitter expelled from school lately I have, for actual kids (as in children, not young adults), including lately. Usually for something like “their mother has an OnlyFans page”.

Source please.

https://lmgtfy.app/?q=kid+expelled+mom+onlyfans

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#598

Post by pbourke »

cgb223 wrote: post #449
monocasa wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the attempt to cancel France. Going so far to rename french fries "freedom fries". All because France thought going to war with Iraq in 2003 was a bad idea.

The “freedom fry” troupe can actually be traced back even farther to WWI If you’ve ever wondered why “frankfurters” are now called “hot dogs” or why “sauerkraut” was called “liberty cabbage” for a hot minute, it’s because of anti-German sentiment in the US [1] [1] https://www.hppr.org/post/freedom-fries-liberty-cabbage-myth

Not just the US - Berlin, Ontario was renamed to Kitchener (after British WWI general Lord Kitchener) in 1916.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#599

Post by redteddy23 »

konjin wrote: post #442
redteddy23 wrote: post #124

Putting aside the fact the worst examples of "Cancel Culture" are an amplified, tiny number of edge cases, given fuel by those who wish to attack fairly reasonable requests to marginalise hate speech. Ishiguro makes a good point a skilled writer can write from the perspective of someone very different from them. Not that many people are actually arguing against that. What was of concern is the perspectives of margina…

Hate speech is free speech you don't like.

I don't like the Dune prequels, Monetarism or Atlas Shrugged. None of them is hate speech.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#600

Post by jack1243star »

3np wrote: post #481
d1zzy wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've unfortunately have discovered that the people who I thought to be friends (smart, funny, kind) have completely changed their attitude once they found out my employer. Now I have to watch out everything I say around them because it's all assumed to come from a place of evil intent and interpreted in the worst case possible. Lesson learned: do not share your work place with anyone you want to keep being friends wi…

Do you work at Palantir or the GOPs social media department or something? Because that sounds extreme and can’t be just about income levels BTW it’s freeing coming from a country where discussing income and money is taboo. I don’t even know what my parents earn. It has its downsides as well, but it’s nice not even being able to judge.

It happens on HN as well, if you work for Google or FB.
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