Conservative cancel culture strikes again

Can you believe it? Fox News literally canceled Lou Dobbs. He was their highest rated host on Fox Business.  

Somebody explain cancel culture to me, in light of this happening.   Thanks.  (PS I haven't watched Fox News in at least 15 years.)

Candy

It turns out that libel lawyers may help save American Democracy.

As I'm sure you recall, Fox, Newsmax, OAN, et al made ridiculous claims that the Democrats had colluded with crooked voting machines to win the election. They figured correctly that "Democrats" etc. can't sue over statements like that. What they didn't figure was that the voting machine companies, Smartmatic and Dominion, would sue them for billions of dollars. So now Lou Dobbs has been fired, an OAN anchor walked off a live broadcast when someone repeated those claims, and multiple right-wing media outlets have belatedly posted admissions that the voting machines were legit.

Apparently, Dominion and Smartmatic have very strong cases, and OAN and Newsmax may get sued out of existence. Oh, and in this case, Fox News did the canceling.

I thought "cancel culture" had something to do with eliminating all things offensive to someone, anyone who can get the attention of...somebody.  One example would be removing and slamming any reference to the Civil War (which, unfortunately was a true historical event).  Movies, music, personalities, companies, anything or anybody who at one time or another (possibly centuries ago) said or did something now viewed as offensive.  Or businesses/companies removing sponsorship from an entertainer because somebody dug something up that the entertainer said or did, maybe recently or maybe eons ago.  That's what I thought cancel culture referred to.  Am I wrong?

Candy

A more nuanced interpretation of the term is that it's a pejorative label applied to any efforts to correct or criticize offensive behavior. It's in the same box as calling someone a liberal snowflake because they don't like the way (insert marginalized group) are treated and they've had the nerve to say so. If you want an antecedent of the term, think "PC." (And sweet Jesus, do I hate that term and the idea behind it, as if avoiding language that could offend people is such a burden.)

If you want to belittle and diminish someone's expressed concerns, call them names (shoot the messenger), label them as a member of a fringe or extremist group (ANTIFAANTIFAANTIFA!!!!!!!!!!!), say that their concerns are purely political (danged LIBURRULS!), or insult their intelligence. At worst, you distract the debate from the actual topic at hand to an argument about the worth of the person making it--an ad hominem attack. At best, you destroy any discussion whatsoever. It's an extremely effective strategy, used to perfection by a certain orange scumbag whose name I refuse to speak.

As far as Mark's use of the term, I think he was being ironic. Fox News, The Asshole Network, Q View, or whatever all the other conservative "news" sources are these days haven't shied away from brutal and nasty attacks on all and sundry--that probably has a lot to do with the sick fact that 59% of Republicans still think that Biden stole the election. But if there's one thing that gets conservatives' attention, it's money. Turns out you can't demean and slander a large corporation and its products without suffering legal consequences. Who knew!

I'm certain that all those conservative pseudo-news outlets and the dirtbag talking heads who make their living lying to their viewers thought that as long as The Orange Thing was in office, they had a magic shield against liability and defamation claims. But the orange pig-dog is gone. He doesn't have enough money to buy a stuffed lawyer doll, let alone an actual lawyer. So conservative media scum--yer on yer own.

I guess a better example (of my question) is the renaming of, and pulling of sponsorships from sports teams when somebody noticed a lot of them had  "Indian" names, which then morphed into cultural insensitivity/incorrectedness regarding American Indian culture.  Whether one agrees with those actions or not, isn't this an example of "Cancel Culture"?  As in cancelling the value of Kevin's super rare baseball cards, junior's wall of Atlanta Braves pennants and other memorabilia he proudly collected over the years without having a negative thought about American Indian culture, just a big fan of the sport and the team? 

Candy

Edited to say: Hey, look, I'm trying to heat up the Kitchen Soup!  LOL.

Well, there used to be a barnstorming Negro baseball team called the Sambos...and if one has any memorabilia related to them, I don't think it should be destroyed or anything like that. But no one is saying that you have to throw away your Braves pennants or Redskins football jerseys, either.

But let me draw one important distinction. Changing the names of sports teams because some may find them offensive isn't an example of "cancel culture"; it's an example of the sort of thing that many people call "cancel culture." Marginalize and demean efforts to be more culturally sensitive by pretending that it's all part of some hypersensitive liberal cult-like movement. Or to put it another way, you can call change "cancellation" if you want, but sometimes, objectionable things should be "canceled." 

And yeah, there may be some elements of overreaction here and there. But given the way our nation has historically treated minority groups, maybe we should overdo it a little in the other direction for, oh, the next 300 years or so, just to balance things out.

And if you're going to heat up the Soup, chop up some carrots and celery while you're at it.

Never heard of the Sambos baseball team.  In my kid-hood there was the ubiquitous bedtime story, "Little Black Sambo" who was chased around and around a tree by a yellow tiger, running so long the tiger turned into butter.  I guess that little book is MIA now.  I also remember the fairly popular chain restaurant Sambos, similar to iHOP or Shoney's Big Boy.  I know we ate there a lot 'cause the food was good.  Seemed benign to me at the time, which reflects my cluelessness about those things back then. 

Damn I miss the Hot Fudge Cake at Shoney's.  That and their Strawberry Pie were famous.  Yum.

Candy

Sambo's Is no more:  Last Remaining Sambo's Changes Its Name

No. Traditionally, if someone is canceled it means they lost their platform or were otherwise ostracized. i.e. Trump was canceled by Twitter. I have never seen the term cancel culture applied to historic events just people. Your Civil War example would fall under replacement theory which is a right-wing conspiracy theory of anti-semitic origin.

For the past couple of years, conservatives have used the term cancel culture to spin themselves as victims of the "liberal media" and the "liberal tech industry" whenever a conservative gets banned from a platform. They don't even look at the conduct that got the conservative banned they just cry "cancel culture". For example, these folks say Trump is a victim of cancel culture because he got de-platformed by the social media companies rather than simply suffering the consequences of his own actions. The term is an integral part of the conservative culture of victimhood. (The belief that white conservative males are the biggest victims of modern American society.)

And yes, I was being ironic. Currently, conservatives nationwide are canceling other conservatives for not supporting Trump's coup attempt or simply refusing to go along with his election conspricy theories.