FIRE Survey Finds Most People See Cancel Culture as a Threat to Democracy and Freedom
A lot of ink has been spilled debating cancel culture, said FIRE Vice President of Communications Nico Perrino. Do Americans see it as a serious cultural phenomenon? What s its effect on free speech? We aimed to answer some of those questions with actual data. The verdict is in: Americans do see cancel culture as a significant cultural trend that has a real effect on the country s free speech climate.
The concept of cancel culture has become increasingly prevalent 73% of respondents have heard the phrase as people, brands, and cultural works face public repudiation by those who consider them offensive or otherwise problematic. Of those familiar with the concept, almost 60% of respondents said that there is a growing cancel culture that is a threat to our freedom. 25% said there is not.
One point that gets emphasized is that Cancel Culture inspires fear, causing people to self-censor:
One especially significant finding from the survey reveals that nearly three-quarters of respondents agreed that people can experience significant stress even to the point of engaging in self-harm because of the public backlash against something they said.
Cancel culture isn t just about what gets said and then punished, said Perrino. It s also about what never gets said for fear of punishment. The chilling effect of self-censorship is real and can have an alarming effect on how Americans communicate.
Cancel culture absolutely causes many people, especially those at the beginning of their careers, to self-censor, which is a fancy way of saying to be fearful of expressing what their views are of how things truly are. To basically live a lie. Nothing is more corrosive of the moral climate of daily life. And you can’t really blame the kids for being afraid. You should blame the petty tyrants who enforce this cancel culture on them. I especially feel that students should be free to think, and think out loud. Providing them the opportunity to do that is essential to educating them. We are not doing that now. Many of us do just the opposite. We have got to stop this before it’s too late.