Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Final Exam: Callout Culture

One of the questions for our final is, "what sort of culture does [the Internet] produce?" Though it undoubtedly produces multiple cultures, I think one of the most observable cultures is "callout" or "cancel" culture. For those who might not know, callout culture is the act of publicly calling out a person (usually a celebrity or otherwise successful person) for their prejudiced behavior, usually with the intention of damaging (or "cancelling") their career. It is different from the "whisper networks" of women attempting to keep each other safe from abusive or predatory men in an industry, as whisper networks never informed public discourse, and their purpose was to protect women rather than to end careers.

I struggle with callout culture because I personally find value in boycotting racist/homophobic/transphobic corporations and individuals. I also think public callouts can be warranted when it comes to things like repeated sexual assault or domestic abuse, especially when the perpetrators are extremely successful. However, it's often taken too far. People orchestrating callout posts often dredge up posts from when now-adult celebrities were teenagers, or attack other minorities for minor transgressions.

Ultimately, callout culture is not a very healthy or productive form of public discourse. It does not aim to educate or correct people on their behavior, only attacks them. It also can wreak a sort of havoc on public discourse to assume the other side is "evil", as callout culture often does.

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