Interesting essay arguing that “cancel culture" was invented by gay marriage activists, which, as a matter of history, I think is correct. nytimes.com/2021/06/05/opi…
One definition of “cancel culture” is that it's regular politics minus any respect for basic ground rules. For example, the basic ground rule that you don't go after ordinary private citizens the way you do public figures.
Or the basic ground rule that you never attack a lawyer for taking a client, because everyone is entitled to a defense. Ask Paul Clement how the gay marriage movement felt about that one.
In his Dishcast with Christopher Caldwell, Andrew Sullivan asked a good question: Granted it might have been better to do gay marriage democratically, if the only difference is a law would have taken 50 years and we did it in 20, at this point who cares? andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/christopher-…
With all due respect to @sullydish, it matters because we are either a self-governing democracy or we aren’t.
Gay marriage fundamentally changed the way our politics is conducted. The old rules of democratic engagement were sacrificed to achieve what many considered a worthy goal. That's what a lot of today's "cancel culture" fights are about: the absence of those old rules.
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