Is Cancel Culture a Dying Sport?

foreign

[Music]

from our Guatemalan hangout in the Hills

above the rebel stronghold I think we've

got a few minutes or

a little while before they before they

raid so um should be able to talk about

some interesting things here today I

hope

yeah I think we made some some good

movements yeah for the cause absolutely

be liberating Central America soon and

that's the plan Cuba yeah absolutely

I wanted to run this by you I actually

stopped in Walmart the other day

to get some notebooks

and uh there was a small door could you

still write things down in notebooks I

do okay I do right yeah

and uh

there was it went to the there was a

pickup door

and normally there's just a bunch of

employees in there and this man came out

uh Indian

and he wasn't wearing a uniform but I

assumed he was getting off of his shift

so I asked him

if you could tell me where the notebooks

were

and he looked at me

more than slightly offended because I

don't work here

you know I could learn

what I looked more closely I realized I

should have figured that out because he

had like a six-pack of Brawny paper

towels the quicker picker upper and was

carrying bags in his other hand but

somehow this episode is brought to you

by Ronnie

but I missed all of this and he clearly

was offended he said I don't work here

and behind him were like seven employees

so he was the only non-employee it

looked like he had just gotten off his

shift

which raises the question was I singling

him out because he was a POC

and

I am very confident that it had nothing

to do with the color of his skin if he

looked the way that he did in a

nondescript black shirt and khaki pants

and he was white

I would have asked him the same question

this is like a room where

typically you only see employees

I can't help but think though that he

went to his car and possibly

in the era of wokeness determined that I

did what I did because of the color of

the skin it's as if we've been taught to

think that way

any thoughts I think it sounds like

you're canceled that should be

canceled and uh yeah he was he was very

offended so I I don't know what he

walked away things I've done that before

at the restaurant just went up no one at

the

at the uh

um what do they call the person at the

front of the hostess yeah and I was like

Hey we've got two people and some guy's

like

I felt so bad he was like just pissed

was he a POC uh no I just uh I don't

think so I don't know cisgender white

man I don't see color so I don't

remember but um

uh yeah so we've got quite a bit to talk

about here today uh cancel culture is

back in the news

uh one theme I don't know if you've

encountered this that seems to be coming

up is

there are fewer cancellations According

to some people that is if we were have

reached Peak cancellation and I wanted

to get your thoughts on that get the

sense more broadly that people are more

relaxed

being themselves I think so

compared to

2021 hmm

people are any signs you see

any signs I don't know

um are you seeing people wearing black

face for Halloween yet

I mean I know that you are planning on

doing that but uh that was supposed to

be a secret

not supposed to give away my Halloween

costume before

the big day no no

um

but there's but I

I feel more comfortable talking to

people

about sensitive issues like the word

welcome has become more of a

joke

or um

it's not it's not taking this seriously

and

and you can you can sort of talk about

what you want to talk about do you think

there's this growing understanding that

people who are canceled

aren't necessarily as crazy as they've

been made out to be

and therefore maybe tolerance will grow

out of that

I don't know because I think initially

this idea of cancellation the Assumption

was you're a horrible person and now

people have had time to look at what

people are being canceled for

and more questions are being raised

about the cancellers themselves

you were talking about wokeness and how

the associations we make with it have

changed and I think one of the

associations people are making is it's

rather absurd and intolerant absurd in

its intolerance

and I'm wondering whether the cancel set

is going to have as much

sticking power

I think with the general public think

what you see like a lot with with

wokeness and intolerance and I mean this

is happening

just as much on the right

is on the left yeah and I wanted to get

to that at this point so they're just

being like

freaking out being triggered

being crazy this was this is not a

left-wing thing anymore and now that

it's happening on on the other side

just as much just sort of like okay

I want a distance people are kind of

like seeing how how ridiculous it can be

and it seems It's not a good thing but

it's happening on both sides but

hopefully people that will

sort of settle

and so people who maybe before would

give cancellation a free pass because

they shared the same side of the

political divide with those doing the

canceling now seeing the other side of

the political divide doing it are maybe

more inclined to wake up you don't see

how ridiculous inappropriate ridiculous

it is when you and your friends are

doing it until you see other people

Maybe

and yet it seems to me we've done so

much damage with cancel culture it's

become so pervasive

the smallest thing can get blown up in

the social media age I can't help but

wonder whether

people have been so traumatized and have

settled into a kind of self-censorship

that the only way out of it is not for

this to just dissipate but for people to

mindfully push back

and Inspire others to do the same

I think that that will happen like okay

this is not this this sort of cancel

culture

as much as I hate that expression

whatever is

it's not in Vogue and as much anymore

it's kind of

flaw

what's more edgy is is sort of you know

pushing up against that and I think

there I do see a little bit of an

element of that I'm not sure if it's if

I if that's really happening or not but

um

and and and that could that can really

catch on should weighing a little here

there is a North Korean author by the

name of yanmi she's 29.

defected

from North Korea and ended up at

Columbia University

and she is blasting

woke culture on campus she said people

there are looking to claim victim status

and trying to gain oppression points

she sees some parallels with what's

happening at Ivy League schools such as

Colombia and what she experienced back

in North Korea an indoctrination

campaign

insisting on Conformity to an ideology

it never ceases to amaze me how many

foreigners who would normally fall under

the umbrella of people of color

reject

the lokies who are intent to support

them

whatever you grew up with is what you

which is is the only experience that you

really relate to oftentimes so it's hard

to look back and see that was a that was

a real oppression and and that was

something that we overcame you don't

really care about that especially if

you're a youth all you see is

all you know is what is is what happened

since in the past like five years so

yeah but if you're coming from a

different country

where there's a

real serious oppressive

States governments and so on

it's easier to see that

what's what's what's wrong with with the

with with a particular subculture

um so she can see that and most

Colombian students probably can't and

it's it probably seems in just insane to

her well you know I've talked before

about how you know the wilkesat means

well and I question how true that is I

for example was reading about Nicole

Hannah Jones whose approach to history

obviously is very flawed

uh and seems to be motivated uh

by the worst intentions in some ways

this isn't a corrective this is rooted

in deep hurt and a desire to stick it

frankly to the white man not like to

tell an authentic accurate version of

History so she's one conspicuous example

of someone who doesn't mean well

and I have a hard time okay leaving room

for the fact that some people maybe do

mean well how much room should we give

them

to get

so much of this wrong when there is

countervailing evidence like our uh

North Korean Defector yanmi Park

staring them in the face and saying look

if the people you're trying to protect

are pointing out that there's something

very problematic and similar to what I

experienced in North Korea

do we keep cutting some them some slack

and saying you mean well or do they have

a responsibility to

own up to

the rigidity of their ideology

well I wasn't I guess I guess I wasn't

trying to cut them slack as much as it

is just

not being surprised by the where they're

coming from and if you're at Columbia

I mean I know

at least one person that went to

Columbia and it's

there's an ideology there that kind of

have to fall into I was just listening

to um

uh a man who went to Colombia and he was

he's gay and he had grown up in a very

conservative household and

was very effeminate and had been

harassed and called and all this

when he was younger

into Columbia and was part of the social

justice movement there was really

excited because there was been so much

progress from like

1987 to to now as far as like gay rights

go

um but

he

he says that he feels like he would he

was he was talking and someone said well

you're you're a assist

uh white guy you know just stop talking

um and he felt like sis was the new

like like like people would be

like shut up you CIS white guy

um and that's how he felt when he would

hear that like when he was a kid

um and and there's

not much progress in that sense because

it's just a picking another group of

people to sort of just right yeah

speaking of gay people

do you think they should be canceled

yes

because here's the thing it depends if

they're they culturally appropriated

the word gay

from Happy People okay yeah

um

yeah

I don't know what to do about that we'll

have to come back to it but just a

thought as

you might think it's ridiculous but I'm

sure it'll be a very serious discussion