Contrasting liberal to cancel culture. Image and text versions below, should you want to modify for yourself.
Cancel Culture defined
| Liberal Culture | Cancel Culture | |
| Range of opinion? | Expect diversity of | Expect uniformity of |
| Attitude toward those who disagree? | Tolerance of the eccentric | Hostility to the deviant |
| Atmosphere encouraged? | Benevolence | Fear |
| Methods allowed? | Argument and rhetoric only | Use any tactic, e.g., ad hominem, shouting down, threats, doxing, etc. |
| Final judgment? | Individual independence encouraged | Conformity demanded |
| Media? | Some choose generic platform and some choose publisher functions | Secretly and/or double-standard-selectively de-platform |
| Government’s role? | Protects free speech | Censors |
| Formal education? | Liberal education ideal | Authoritarian |
| Underlying philosophy? | Reason, objectivity, individualism, social win/win | Irrationalism, subjectivity, collectivism, social adversarialism |
Related:
“Liberal Education and Its Postmodern Critics,” academic journal article at Reason Papers.
Invited lecture at Clemson University, “The Postmodern Attack on Liberal Education.”
“Real Liberal Education: interviewed by Marsha Enright,” one-hour Great Connections conversation.
Excellent and timely summary of two different approaches related to a viewpoint about how to treat other people. Someone recently asserted that ‘cancel culture’ is just a product of individual responsibility and doesn’t actually exist, but rather is just a meaningless Internet meme. It’s true that as a concept is a floating abstraction in its current use and that there is nothing overtly illegal about ‘cancel culture’ per se. But that observation doesn’t warrant the conclusions that there is nothing to see here. The behaviour that evokes the label of ‘cancel culture’ is identifiable, and is an outcome or product of implicit premises about appropriate actions to achieve desired goals, and behind that lies an implicit philosophy, and particularly an ethic. It is only after recognizing this and defining terms that a proper conversation can begin. As you have identified, Cancel Culture is not a valid aspect of Liberal Culture and cannot, if practiced, deliver the benefits that Liberal Culture has proven to deliver. It is not just another aspect of Liberal Culture, although the openness of Liberal Culture does provide the breeding ground for such a mind virus.