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Perspective: So who should get cancelled?

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Cancel culture: we hear constant ranting and raving about the dangers of it, about how “snowflakes” just can’t take a joke, about how everyone is just too sensitive these days. For what a bogeyman cancel culture has become in our modern society, you'd think someone, somewhere might actually have been cancelled. But no, tell transphobic jokes? You get a Netflix special! Solicit underage girls? Sure, you can stay in office! Engage in nonconsensual sexual activity in front of your industry colleagues? Heck, they’ll give you a Grammy for your apology tour!

That isn’t cancel culture. Do you know what is? All the young women who would be INCREDIBLE comics who can’t risk taking a chance on an industry filled with men like Louis CK. Cancel culture is trans writers, directors, and creators who worry their stories will never have a place on a streaming service that platforms people who hate them and demean them. Cancel culture is a gay teacher afraid he’ll be fired if he mentions his husband.

Cancel culture is not about punishing those who aren’t “woke” enough. Cancel culture isn’t about punishment at all. Cancel culture is and should be about remembering who is silenced, who is excluded, and who is denied a place at the table when abuse and hatred are ignored. Cancel culture is about saying that no one is so funny, so charismatic, so talented that they are allowed to get away with it. Cancel culture is our way of saying that we stand with survivors. And I wish it was real.

Lynnea Erickson Laskowski is a former resident (and forever enthusiast) of the DeKalb area. Originally from Iowa, Lynnea moved to DeKalb in 2011 to complete a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. She currently lives in Washington DC with her toothless dog.