Cancel Culture - does it exist?

[MCFC_ Phil]

Oppps, thought it said Culture Club

 

[inbetween]

I don't think it is that simple: aspects of history are being discovered that have been shielded from us for generations in order to promote the 'goodness' of our nation and its heroes. It is not necessarily that interpretation has changed but that we can now interpret what was hidden.

Is this really true though or are we just ignorant? Is there a single civilization or aspect of history that hasn't involved terrible and awful things? The actions of the British Empire isn't new information and it's a fact that we aren't the only empire to exist let alone were we the only country to engage in slavery.

This is why I mention the odd hypocrisy that some are so outraged that we must remove any aspect of the British Empire but they'd happily go on holiday to Rome and take pictures of the Colosseum where literally slaves and prisoners were thrown into a ring to kill each other.

Ancient Egypt is another great example, like Rome the place was literally built on slavery and the pyramids stand today as one of the 7 wonders of the world. I don't see anyone calling for the pyramids to be demolished.

So are people just ignorant or are they hypocrites? The reality is that this is all just another form of toxic identity politics which demands exceptional criticism of the UK and its past. It has nothing to do with history, morals or anything like that.

 

[blueinsa]

Is this really true though or are we just ignorant? Is there a single civilization or aspect of history that hasn't involved terrible and awful things? The actions of the British Empire isn't new information and it's a fact that we aren't the only empire to exist let alone were we the only country to engage in slavery.

This is why I mention the odd hypocrisy that some are so outraged that we must remove any aspect of the British Empire but they'd happily go on holiday to Rome and take pictures of the Colosseum where literally slaves and prisoners were thrown into a ring to kill each other.

Ancient Egypt is another great example, like Rome the place was literally built on slavery and the pyramids stand today as one of the 7 wonders of the world. I don't see anyone calling for the pyramids to be demolished.

So are people just ignorant or are they hypocrites? The reality is that this is all just another form of toxic identity politics which demands exceptional criticism of the UK and its past. It has nothing to do with history, morals or anything like that.

Excellent post.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

The only way we can get a definitive answer to this question is if the @Moderating Team delete the thread.

Then we’ll know.

 

[Bigga]

LOL!

There are, literally, people who peruse this thread and/ or have asked people to be removed from threads because of their views.

Not because of bad behaviour (I've been guilty of that through personal abuse/ attacks), but because an individual's view is seperate from the collective.

It's alive and well on BM.

 

[meltonblue]

Is this really true though or are we just ignorant? Is there a single civilization or aspect of history that hasn't involved terrible and awful things? The actions of the British Empire isn't new information and it's a fact that we aren't the only empire to exist let alone were we the only country to engage in slavery.

This is why I mention the odd hypocrisy that some are so outraged that we must remove any aspect of the British Empire but they'd happily go on holiday to Rome and take pictures of the Colosseum where literally slaves and prisoners were thrown into a ring to kill each other.

Ancient Egypt is another great example, like Rome the place was literally built on slavery and the pyramids stand today as one of the 7 wonders of the world. I don't see anyone calling for the pyramids to be demolished.

So are people just ignorant or are they hypocrites? The reality is that this is all just another form of toxic identity politics which demands exceptional criticism of the UK and its past. It has nothing to do with history, morals or anything like that.

There’s not many calls for things to be demolished, there is calls for the removal of individual statues but even then, to a museum, or a greater awareness of the individuals concerned.

On the pyramids, they weren’t built by slaves so I’d put that one down to ignorance ;)

 

[BrianW]

All cultures have something about them that isn't pretty.

For example, Ireland had slaves much longer than England did - for clarity, I am talking about the domestic law, not colonies abroad. And slaves, as such, not serfs, who are another category. (It ain't great to be a serf, but it's better than being a slave.)

Abraham Lincoln was a 'radical lefty' in his own time, but would now be classed as a racist. He wanted to ship all Black people out of the USA, albeit he also wanted to destroy slavery.

You have to take people in the round and in the context of their time. But it's no use pretending historical characters were all saints - that's where I diverge from the 'Britain's Glorious History' brigade. By all means make Winston Churchill, Oliver Cromwell, or whoever your hero, but acknowledge they had their faults.

 

[OnlyOneUweRosler]

It absolutely exists, many people have had their lives ruined maliciously over one post. Look at the England cricket lad, one poor taste joke made when he was still a child and the ECB went to town to crush him. Cancel culture is ruining free speech, as the wine aunt demographic try to destroy a person's life if they are not sufficiently down with the current thing

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

It absolutely exists, many people have had their lives ruined maliciously over one post. Look at the England cricket lad, one poor taste joke made when he was still a child and the ECB went to town to crush him. Cancel culture is ruining free speech, as the wine aunt demographic try to destroy a person's life if they are not sufficiently down with the current thing

 

[ganganvince]

Gingerbread men have been cancelled