The Case for Cancel Culture: How This Democratic Tool Works to Liberate Us All

Journalist Owens debuts with an incisive defense of cancel culture. Defining cancel culture as the effort to collectively recognize and eradicate problematic behavior, he traces its links to radical protest and boycott movements of the past, including the American Revolution and the civil rights movement. He also analyzes the differences between how progressives and conservatives employ cancel culture (among others, progressives are much more likely to call out their own) and delves into individual cases, including the cancellations of R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein, and other sexual abusers by the #MeToo movement, and the conservative backlash against the Dixie Chicks for opposing the war in Iraq in 2003. Owens also claims that “glaring double standards” exist in conservative as well as progressive circles, noting that R&B singer Chrisette Michelle “got canceled for performing at one of Trump’s inaugural balls, while Kanye West, who had more nefarious ties to Trump, was treated with more nuance, grace, and empathy.” Some readers may quibble at Owens’s conflation of modern-day cancel culture and historical protest movements such as Gandhi’s campaign against the British salt tax in India, but his arguments are thought-provoking and well supported. The result is an invigorating survey of a hot-button political issue. (Feb.)