On an almost daily basis, I learn about some new thing being cancelled, books (such as Maus), or other media. It seems like there’s a never ending stream of content being cancelled in various forms, by various organizations, for various reasons. But the most toxic aspect of all of this is pretending that this is anything new, or that it’s a partisan issue.
From the Pope, to local school boards, and even whole countries, things have been getting cancelled since the beginning of our species. The real goal should be trying to identify when it’s appropriate to censor, and when it’s not. Some states such as China have taken this to the extreme, and will outright ban almost anything, for almost any reason, suppressing their people’s ability to have debate against the government, largely through it’s country-wide firewall.
And more recently Joe Rogan has been attacked, justifiably, for having spread fear and distrust of the vaccines. In-fact quite a few different right wing pundits and hosts are getting flack for this. And yet they will go on their platforms, getting millions of views, sometimes even on cable television, and complain about how they’re being “suppressed”. It is comical in how absolutely absurd it is.
There are easier ways to understand if something should have warnings, or outright be restricted from certain audiences. For instance children need to have materials restricted in a lot of cases, materials that deal with more adult narratives, including sex. This is definitely understandable in a lot of scenarios. But I remember how Church groups stood against Pokemon as being a “gateway to satan”, and how they did everything they could to try and cancel it when I was young.
This has always been a bipartisan issue, and unless we can find some common ground to have a real debate on, it will continue to be a bipartisan issue, divided by the opposing views of what each side believes is right.