Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What it's like to be cancelled

noahbradley.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 613 posts

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#251

Post by telesilla »

WA wrote: post #157
laurent123456 wrote: post #100

It seems it's better to stay away entirely from certain sensitive topics. No matter your intentions, no matter what you actually think, it just takes a bit of misunderstanding or bad faith and the whole thing explode.

No, just post anonymously. Way better. Then your voice is heard, but you don't have to suffer personal consequences.

As a woman who has been posting anonymously for years to avoid uninteresting personal attacks, I've come to enjoy and rely on it. Maybe the entire Real Names idiocy started by Google+ can be forgotten about and we can move on? Nothing wrong with an anonymous handle.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#252

Post by Supermancho »

hindsightbias wrote: post #163
PaulKeeble wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that happens if you voice your opinion in the opposite direction of an internet mob is you get piled on too. Anyone who has been on the internet must have experienced this more than once. Introducing some facts or measure (which is hard with twitters very tiny character limit that squashes nuance and debate) in a response is just the same thing. The internet mob is a mob and acts like a mob and its best to get ou…

An internet mob is the perfect model for what a Direct Democracy would look like.

That IS what direct democracy is. Those who are the most motivated are a mix of earnest intellectuals and furious emotional reactionaries. The rest stay uninformed and apathetic, voting with the most outspoken they identify with or not at all.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#253

Post by theHIDninja »

Stop using the term Cancel Culture. It has a much more light-hearted sound to it than the act could ever be. A more accurate term would be "Scapegoat Culture", as that is what these degenerate users partake in. They cast their problems onto someone and then force them out of society.

Instead of saying "He got cancelled by the Twitter mob", say "he got scapegoated by the Twitter mob"

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#254

Post by dang »

TX0098812 wrote: post #123
cyberge99 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are “our laws”? Twitter is a global corporation.

It's based in the US in California and is dominated by an English speaking crowd from the US who reflect the values where they come from.

Please let's not swerve into nationalistic flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#255

Post by ThaDood »

lovecg wrote: post #106
ThaDood wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I'm not saying you should have your entire life uprooted because you said something stupid on Twitter when you were like 13. The situation in this case is a little different. Again, don't be a dick or try to avoid it when possible and I don't think you will have to worry about being canceled.

What do you think about cases like this one? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/mount-allison-s... An immigrant _tenured_ professor in Canada got suspended for saying that Canada is not racist on her blog. Was she being a dick? Does she deserve the “consequences”? At what point do we stop saying “oh these are isolated incidents and not a trend”?

I thought it might be kind of obvious but I think I tend to forget that things posted online are missing some critical context. So anyways, I really I don't want to be dismissive of fair and valid criticisms but its hard to articulate my opinion on the matter in a short and semi-awkward format like HN. Basically what I am trying to say is that my point is probably a little more nuanced then it seems.

That being said, I do think that there are circumstances in which being "canceled" might not be warranted. I have not heard of the case you are referencing specifically until just now. I read the article and found the prof on RateMyProfessor and overall they do not seem like a shitty person, however I would still like to read the "confidential" report the school conducted even though that is probably not possible as that might change my opinion. Also I am not Canadian and most of the Canadians I know/have experiences with do not outright strike me as racist. Of course current trends I have seen in both the US and Canada have lead me to rethink that people/areas are not inherently free of racial prejudice and if Canada has a somewhat similar history to the US, there is most certainly a bit of racism.

I digress, I think canceling can be a problem for situations like the one you referenced and I do not want to undersell how shitty it can be for someone who is on the wrong end of it. In some cases in may be warranted if the proper mechanism for fairness or recourse are not working. I guess it just kind of depends.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#256

Post by happytoexplain »

xupybd wrote: post #142
radmuzom wrote: post #66

Earlier this year when Richard Stallman was re-instated to the Board of the FSF, there were a lot of tweets expressing dismay. To one of them, I replied that I personally don't think he has done anything wrong at all - and linked to a well-known article by a woman who defended him better than me. While I found some support among a few people, the amount of hate I received shook me a bit. People started adding me to l…

Yeah Twitter is very toxic. I got on a few lists as well. I tried to talk to the NZ civil liberties association about freedom of speech. As it turns out they are against free speech and pro hate speech laws. I didn't know that going in. Then some people put me on a hate speech list. After that I was blocked by a large group of people I'd never encountered. It's a weird place and I'm glad to be off the platform.

I completely believe that whatever happened to you was totally unreasonable, but try to understand that from another person's point of view, the broad "you must be against freedom of speech" thing is "toxic", just as you have experienced "toxic" behavior from the opposite side of the issue.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#257

Post by tw04 »

Ensorceled wrote: post #222

There has to be room among the woke for the awakening or we never make progress. I think this is the essence of any legitimate criticism of cancel culture. The lack of nuance and the lack of room. Do I ever want to see Bill Cosby or OJ Simpson in a new role? No. Some levels of horrible are unforgivable. Cancel away. Woody Allen. Same. Louis C.K.? Maybe? Unlikely. Certainly not until he makes some kind of real effort/…

>There are a lot of Noah Bradley's in the world, do they deserve a second chance?

A second chance to make art? Absolutely. A second chance to be in a position where they have any influence whatsoever over other artists and their careers? I'd have a tough time getting onboard with that.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#258

Post by JackFr »

I’m not unsympathetic with the author, but I have to admit I’m not completely sympathetic either.

> I woke up to several people tagging me in a twitter thread for my sleezy behavior at some art events many years ago. I wasn’t that person any more and I wanted to apologize for being an asshole in the past. I had apologized privately for everything, but I hoped it might show my sincerity and commitment to being better to address it publicly.

That smells more like PR damage control than sincerity.

The Twitter mob is bad. On that we can agree. And I cannot plumb the depths of his heart.

But apologizing doesn’t absolve you of bad behavior. And if someone doesn’t accept your apology (possibly believing it’s insincere) and brings up your “sleezy behavior at some art events many years ago”, calling them out and saying I’m not that guy anymore is not really owning his behavior.

> I made some desktop wallpapers to remind myself of those various laws because I have a poor memory and wanted to remind myself of them while I was reading a bunch of history books.

Come. On. “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#259

Post by jandrese »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #69
yummybear wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest you do when you have been behaving incorrectly? You can’t change the past.

That's an odd strawman. I... wouldn't behave incorrectly in the first place. It's not a difficult concept to understand for most people I hope, especially with sexual harassment.

Some people had the norms change out from under them. In the past the societal norm was that Women were supposed to be shy and demure and pretend to be uninterested in sex. The men were supposed to take charge and "conquer".

Nowadays we know this is dumb and causes tons of unwanted harassment. People changed and made the world a better place, which was great. Then we went back and started prosecuting people for doing what they were told they were supposed to be doing at the time. This is why we have grandfather clauses in the law.

The difference between Sexual Harassment and Flirting is if the other person is into it.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#260

Post by [deleted] »

surround wrote: post #217
overgard wrote: post #99

I've fortunately never been cancelled (I don't think I even have enough of a footprint or visibility for that to happen). From everything I've observed, the absolute worst thing you can do is apologize to the people attempting to cancel you. It's just pouring gasoline on the fire. These people will never say "oh, you learned from your mistakes, I guess I'll back off" . Most of them don't really care about the truth,…

Every single internet apology I've seen has been met with "this is such a bad apology / isn't a real apology." I'd love to see an example of an internet apology where people don't criticize the apology itself (if one exists).

[deleted]
Post reply on HN