Will Wilkinson 🏳️‍🌈: This is why, when I got “canceled” for a tweet, I refused to affirm that “cancel culture” is a thing because the made-up moral panic around it was always obviously a stalking horse for straight-up right-wing state-sponsored censorship of the left. Dipshits who got played still won’t admit it.

This is why, when I got “canceled” for a tweet, I refused to affirm that “cancel culture” is a thing because the made-up moral panic around it was always obviously a stalking horse for straight-up right-wing state-sponsored censorship of the left. Dipshits who got played still won’t admit it.

It is incredibly infuriating that all the complaining about cancel culture paved a path to this, where state officials are saying that they are allowed to censor any faculty speech that contradicts them. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Fla. argues it could stop professors from criticizing governorwww.insidehighered.com A nationally prominent conservative lawyer, hired to defend the state’s Stop WOKE Act, asserted that what public university professors say in classrooms “is the government’s speech.” The national impl...

The tendency of a lot of folks, especially high-status folks, was the opposite - when they experienced criticism, they took it as proof of a radical problem that justified radical action

High Status folks are used to their status doing the talking... When it collides with people who don't care about status....

I mistrust pretty much anything that gets shortened to a catchphrase. "Cancel culture" is weaponizable; "social media dynamics that encourage pile-ons and context-free boosting" is more the thing that's the problem imo.

I just want to take the opportunity, since you brought it up, to say that I believe that was perhaps the single finest tweet ever crafted. Thank you for it.

I’m honored.

I feel sorry to have missed it No idea which tweet it was 😕

It was a superb, efficient joke and a strong warrant for the proposition that "comedy literacy" is at least as important as "media literacy."

Thank you for saying so!

Ok, now I'm curious.

This is the best reporting about my bad main character day. newrepublic.com/article/1610...

Don’t Fire People for Dumb Tweetsnewrepublic.com The Niskanen Center bowed to fake outrage from bad-faith right-wing trolls when it fired Will Wilkinson.

It was so obviously a joke that it was stolen by the Onion. www.theonion.com/biden-vows-n...

Biden Vows Not To Forget Lessons Of January 6: ‘We Must Hang Mike Pence’www.theonion.com WASHINGTON—In a stirring speech at the U.S. Capitol Thursday morning, President Joe Biden vowed not to forget the lessons of the Jan. 6 riot, urging Americans to hang former Vice President Mike Pence....

Your serious take afterwards is great too!

The Republican Unity Griftmodelcitizen.substack.com You can't spell "impunity" without "unity"

Thanks!!!

Oh yeah, I remember that tweet! It really is a fantastic line — I'm pretty sure that it elicited a full belly laugh from me at the time. I was not aware of the blowback that ensued.

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