I’ve gotten to the point where I despise ‘cancelling’ & this seemingly acceptable form of mob abuse we put people through. On principle I will reject almost any sin that the mob puts forth as justification for doing this to people. More of us need to step away from & condemn this mob behavior.
Here's an opportunity to support a cancelled filmmaker, Vaishnavi Sundar. Once held in high regard by the likes of Sundance Film Festival, she was abruptly dropped from several film festivals when the topic of her series, Dysphoric, was judged to be "inappropriate" by the woke film expert class because we aren't supposed to recognize and profile detransitioners. This Friday, her film about trans widows and the children of men who suddenly claim to be 'mothers' will premier on Sundar's only platform, Lime Soda Films YouTube channel.
This is a timely and well researched article on the destructive impact of "canceling" people. I think it would have been helpful to break the article into two, one focusing on the psychological impact of cancelation and one on the potential legal remedies.
I would add my observation that when women I know engage in this behavior they have broad smiles and glinting eyes. At last, the mean girls get to act out their most aggressive impulses with open displays of pleasure and without inhibition. It's basically a blood sport rationalized by the claim that one is a warrior for a righteous cause.
Part of the destructive impact of mob violence on a culture wide scale is that the entire population is forced to gaze long and deeply at the most disgusting, despicable aspects of being human.
Hi Sandra - I wrote this kind of like a "survey course," introducing a few of the major themes around the consequences of cancellations, and putting down the marker for many more articles going deeper into the specifics of each section and more into the individual stories of cancelled people. Part of that is for pitching those future articles: most editors / outlets / people don't know that any of this exists, that there is a massive story here in the individual-level consequences of cancellation. There are many more to come on the psychological impacts (esp the science and evolution aspects), legal aspects, and personal stories. All the hat-tips, cheers, and credit to Colin for recognizing this and giving this a good push down the track (along with the other places that have published my shorter, narrower articles on the topic).
To your second point, there's are a couple researchers in Australia I'm emailing with who have looked into the motivations and psychological profiles of people who engage in different online mobs.
I'm particularly interested in the people who instigate cancellations. 2-3 cancelled people talked to me about the "dark triad," which I hadn't previously heard of: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. They saw this in the people who started their cancellation, and in some cases recognized it even beforehand - they knew something bad could come from them, but they didn't know or couldn't predict what it would be. I've noticed, too, that many of the other people close to the situation (e.g., other athletes or co-workers) are often completely unsurprised when they learn who did the cancelling. I think the type of person who would do this is often the type of person most people are a bit wary of.
Thank you for reading (both the article and this response)!
Thanks for the in depth reply! I'll look forward to reading more of your writing!
After the first version of the Mean Girls movie came out, there was some professional interest in the psychopathology these adolescent girls might have. I found a couple articles in peer reviewed journals that studied girls who fit the profile as adolescents, then re-evaluated them as young adults. They did score in the pathological zone on naricissism. I haven't looked at the articles for a couple of years, but I'll see if I can relocate them; will forward them to you if I am successful.
Yes they are! I was close to my Mom and always had good female friends, so I wasn't prepared for the horrible unprovoked aggression I encountered from women in high school and on into adulthood.
I escaped the abuse by sisters, but had a narcissistic cousin who lived with us. He had all the same behaviors as the mean girls, plus physical threats and sneaky violence. I think that the mean girls and the mean boys are similar except for the kinds of aggression they act out.
This is a weird piece for me. It seems tangental to any main point with respect to the cancel culture phenom. I see it simply. It started with #MeToo. It is in fact a product of changes in our economy and society cranking out educated females and injecting them in positions of dominance. Add social media and what we have done is mainstreamed the hostility of vulnerable narcissism… took the mean and bossy girls culture of high school and overlayed it on all of society. Males tend to do direct conflict. They fight, work it out and go get a drink at the bar. Females build lifelong resentment from internal jealousy and work covertly to insert a knife and keep twisting it.
Cancel culture is an educated female thing. If Darwin was alive today, he could probably explain what is broken.
Nellie Bowles didn't cancel her friend. She helped her friend cancel someone else. The call you're talking about in the first paragraph was indeed from her friend, "[t]he one I had canceled in honor of", but this isn't the same as the person that was canceled.
The problem I have with Nellie Bowles is the New York Times article in which she took 10 minutes out context within a two day conversation with Jordan Peterson to demonize Peterson while playing nice to his face. She then marries Bari Weiss and join The Free Press, which causes her to be demonized by her co-workers and fellow activists. She then plays the victim and writes a book about it to make money off it. She needs to go to every person she hurt, including Peterson, and apologize.
A few years back I wrote a series of articles on “Internet” and “social media”, which I called a “Cesspool of Misery”.
Most people don’t grasp that postings on internet are recordings, not conversations. Recorded material is systematically mined and used to cause as much pain as possible since monetizing controversy gains the most revenue.
The distribution of recorded “conversations” happen faster than humans can control.
The only real solutions to avalanche model “cancellation” is (1) legal restraint on using names of people who do not approve of their names used in public forums, except for public figures. (2) limiting speed of distribution of statements who allow their name used to a volume and velocity they allow (3) legal block or slowdown of system providers (rebound cancel) for unmanaged instances of un-approved message distribution (4) retirement dates on commentary per policy approved by the named figures.
Often people say “truth wants to be free” which is false: noise and false information want to be distrusted very quickly, in speed in proportion to how sensational and offensive the truth it displaces. It’s a property of all information systems.
I wasn't a public figure until I was unconstitutionally criminalized and this was reported in the press, and then with my name becoming public, it was linked to the libelous, defamatory articles and blog posts that had been published about me.
"In one such case, Jennifer Couture is suing social media influencer Danesh Noshirvan for tortious interference in federal court in Florida. Noshirvan, a TikToker with over 1.5 million followers, allegedly led a dox-and-cancel mob that cost Couture business contracts and client relationships.
The court noted that Noshirvan’s “niche is cancel culture... People pay Noshirvan for this doxing service.” If a single TikToker can carve out a niche business as a crowd-sourced cancellation hitman, it signals that the corporate media, with assistance from Big Law and DEI-focused institutions, have constructed a new industry vertical over the last five to eight years around crowd-sourced cancellation services."
George, what you chose to include and exclude about the Couture v Noshirvan case could be construed as defamation per se.
Ms. Couture did not lose her job. The business that she runs with her boss/boyfriend is thriving. Just last Christmas they threw a lavish holiday party that they posted a professionally done video about.
Discovery is now closed in that case and exactly ZERO evidence has been submitted to support the allegation that he is a "crowd-sourced cancellation hitman" or paid to dox people.
"Big Law and DEI-focused institutions" have nothing to do with people exercising their First Amendment rights, as ThatDaneshGuy does.
You included no mention of the fact that the reason why Danesh identified Couture is because she assaulted another person and then attempted to back her G-Wagon over them. Ms. Couture was subsequently arrested and plead guilty.
Her lawsuit is doomed. And she and her boyfriend will lose the lawsuit that Danesh filed against them as well.
So my warning to you is about citing allegations in lawsuits which have not been fully adjudicated to support an argument you are making. There is way to do that responsibly, you have not.
Great article. I was wondering if you had any data on rates of mental health in cancellation victims and family size. Was wondering if robust family networks and/or family size might significantly mitigate the emotionsl stress of cancellation.
"The campaign was designed to ruin the careers of Arab professors by equating their criticisms of Israel with racism, anti-Semitism, and bullying, and its central demand was that those professors (some of whom lacked tenure) be disciplined for their transgressions."
I’ve gotten to the point where I despise ‘cancelling’ & this seemingly acceptable form of mob abuse we put people through. On principle I will reject almost any sin that the mob puts forth as justification for doing this to people. More of us need to step away from & condemn this mob behavior.
Here's an opportunity to support a cancelled filmmaker, Vaishnavi Sundar. Once held in high regard by the likes of Sundance Film Festival, she was abruptly dropped from several film festivals when the topic of her series, Dysphoric, was judged to be "inappropriate" by the woke film expert class because we aren't supposed to recognize and profile detransitioners. This Friday, her film about trans widows and the children of men who suddenly claim to be 'mothers' will premier on Sundar's only platform, Lime Soda Films YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frffv2sB8zE
This is a timely and well researched article on the destructive impact of "canceling" people. I think it would have been helpful to break the article into two, one focusing on the psychological impact of cancelation and one on the potential legal remedies.
I would add my observation that when women I know engage in this behavior they have broad smiles and glinting eyes. At last, the mean girls get to act out their most aggressive impulses with open displays of pleasure and without inhibition. It's basically a blood sport rationalized by the claim that one is a warrior for a righteous cause.
Part of the destructive impact of mob violence on a culture wide scale is that the entire population is forced to gaze long and deeply at the most disgusting, despicable aspects of being human.
Hi Sandra - I wrote this kind of like a "survey course," introducing a few of the major themes around the consequences of cancellations, and putting down the marker for many more articles going deeper into the specifics of each section and more into the individual stories of cancelled people. Part of that is for pitching those future articles: most editors / outlets / people don't know that any of this exists, that there is a massive story here in the individual-level consequences of cancellation. There are many more to come on the psychological impacts (esp the science and evolution aspects), legal aspects, and personal stories. All the hat-tips, cheers, and credit to Colin for recognizing this and giving this a good push down the track (along with the other places that have published my shorter, narrower articles on the topic).
To your second point, there's are a couple researchers in Australia I'm emailing with who have looked into the motivations and psychological profiles of people who engage in different online mobs.
I'm particularly interested in the people who instigate cancellations. 2-3 cancelled people talked to me about the "dark triad," which I hadn't previously heard of: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. They saw this in the people who started their cancellation, and in some cases recognized it even beforehand - they knew something bad could come from them, but they didn't know or couldn't predict what it would be. I've noticed, too, that many of the other people close to the situation (e.g., other athletes or co-workers) are often completely unsurprised when they learn who did the cancelling. I think the type of person who would do this is often the type of person most people are a bit wary of.
Thank you for reading (both the article and this response)!
Thanks for the in depth reply! I'll look forward to reading more of your writing!
After the first version of the Mean Girls movie came out, there was some professional interest in the psychopathology these adolescent girls might have. I found a couple articles in peer reviewed journals that studied girls who fit the profile as adolescents, then re-evaluated them as young adults. They did score in the pathological zone on naricissism. I haven't looked at the articles for a couple of years, but I'll see if I can relocate them; will forward them to you if I am successful.
This is why I am hesitant to get close to many women because women have been some of the most vicious monsters I have ever encountered.
Yes they are! I was close to my Mom and always had good female friends, so I wasn't prepared for the horrible unprovoked aggression I encountered from women in high school and on into adulthood.
I escaped the abuse by sisters, but had a narcissistic cousin who lived with us. He had all the same behaviors as the mean girls, plus physical threats and sneaky violence. I think that the mean girls and the mean boys are similar except for the kinds of aggression they act out.
This is a weird piece for me. It seems tangental to any main point with respect to the cancel culture phenom. I see it simply. It started with #MeToo. It is in fact a product of changes in our economy and society cranking out educated females and injecting them in positions of dominance. Add social media and what we have done is mainstreamed the hostility of vulnerable narcissism… took the mean and bossy girls culture of high school and overlayed it on all of society. Males tend to do direct conflict. They fight, work it out and go get a drink at the bar. Females build lifelong resentment from internal jealousy and work covertly to insert a knife and keep twisting it.
Cancel culture is an educated female thing. If Darwin was alive today, he could probably explain what is broken.
Completely false. I was cancelled, and it was a race thing. Mine happened in 1983, well before #metoo.
Non sequitur.
I’m a woman who’s never cancelled anyone and never will.
I'm a man. Same here. Frankly it is not a good strategy as all the canceled people start a Substack and eventually turn on those canceling crybullies.
Nellie Bowles didn't cancel her friend. She helped her friend cancel someone else. The call you're talking about in the first paragraph was indeed from her friend, "[t]he one I had canceled in honor of", but this isn't the same as the person that was canceled.
The reference to Nellie Bowles is very confusing. And misleading.
Women are just flat out mean humans.
Some are.
The problem I have with Nellie Bowles is the New York Times article in which she took 10 minutes out context within a two day conversation with Jordan Peterson to demonize Peterson while playing nice to his face. She then marries Bari Weiss and join The Free Press, which causes her to be demonized by her co-workers and fellow activists. She then plays the victim and writes a book about it to make money off it. She needs to go to every person she hurt, including Peterson, and apologize.
She seems very wishy-washy. No lines where there should be lines. I'm not sure how to describe but I see it in people sometimes.
A few years back I wrote a series of articles on “Internet” and “social media”, which I called a “Cesspool of Misery”.
Most people don’t grasp that postings on internet are recordings, not conversations. Recorded material is systematically mined and used to cause as much pain as possible since monetizing controversy gains the most revenue.
The distribution of recorded “conversations” happen faster than humans can control.
The only real solutions to avalanche model “cancellation” is (1) legal restraint on using names of people who do not approve of their names used in public forums, except for public figures. (2) limiting speed of distribution of statements who allow their name used to a volume and velocity they allow (3) legal block or slowdown of system providers (rebound cancel) for unmanaged instances of un-approved message distribution (4) retirement dates on commentary per policy approved by the named figures.
Often people say “truth wants to be free” which is false: noise and false information want to be distrusted very quickly, in speed in proportion to how sensational and offensive the truth it displaces. It’s a property of all information systems.
I wasn't a public figure until I was unconstitutionally criminalized and this was reported in the press, and then with my name becoming public, it was linked to the libelous, defamatory articles and blog posts that had been published about me.
And had it been forbidden to use your name…
"In one such case, Jennifer Couture is suing social media influencer Danesh Noshirvan for tortious interference in federal court in Florida. Noshirvan, a TikToker with over 1.5 million followers, allegedly led a dox-and-cancel mob that cost Couture business contracts and client relationships.
The court noted that Noshirvan’s “niche is cancel culture... People pay Noshirvan for this doxing service.” If a single TikToker can carve out a niche business as a crowd-sourced cancellation hitman, it signals that the corporate media, with assistance from Big Law and DEI-focused institutions, have constructed a new industry vertical over the last five to eight years around crowd-sourced cancellation services."
George, what you chose to include and exclude about the Couture v Noshirvan case could be construed as defamation per se.
Ms. Couture did not lose her job. The business that she runs with her boss/boyfriend is thriving. Just last Christmas they threw a lavish holiday party that they posted a professionally done video about.
Discovery is now closed in that case and exactly ZERO evidence has been submitted to support the allegation that he is a "crowd-sourced cancellation hitman" or paid to dox people.
"Big Law and DEI-focused institutions" have nothing to do with people exercising their First Amendment rights, as ThatDaneshGuy does.
You included no mention of the fact that the reason why Danesh identified Couture is because she assaulted another person and then attempted to back her G-Wagon over them. Ms. Couture was subsequently arrested and plead guilty.
Her lawsuit is doomed. And she and her boyfriend will lose the lawsuit that Danesh filed against them as well.
So my warning to you is about citing allegations in lawsuits which have not been fully adjudicated to support an argument you are making. There is way to do that responsibly, you have not.
I am Jennifer Couture you mentioned me in your article. If you could please contact me. 239-340-2470
Great article. I was wondering if you had any data on rates of mental health in cancellation victims and family size. Was wondering if robust family networks and/or family size might significantly mitigate the emotionsl stress of cancellation.
"The campaign was designed to ruin the careers of Arab professors by equating their criticisms of Israel with racism, anti-Semitism, and bullying, and its central demand was that those professors (some of whom lacked tenure) be disciplined for their transgressions."
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-her-years-of-attacks-on-the-academic-freedom-of-arab-scholars-who-criticize-israel/
Here is a connection... https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/the-distinctiveness-of-human-aggression