Has cancel culture been replaced by something even more sinister?

Kurt Mahlburg
October 17, 2024 25 Reactions

Seth Dillon, the owner of The Babylon Bee, knows a thing or two about cancel culture.

In March 2022, The Babylon Bee — the wildly popular satirical website he owns and runs — was locked out of its Twitter account.

The Bee’s crime? Awarding its inaugural Man of the Year title to Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine.

For the record, Levine is a biological male who identifies as a woman, and at the time was being widely celebrated by the legacy media for his various firsts in breaking through the transgender “glass ceiling” in the federal government.

Twitter assured The Babylon Bee their account would be unlocked immediately if they only deleted their provocative post, seen below. The company refused, and went on to spend almost seven months in a digital gulag.

In a twist of fate, it was these very events that prompted billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to plot his purchase of Twitter, which he has since rebadged as X. In the eyes of many, X stands today as the last great holdout of free speech on the internet.

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So when Seth Dillon opines on cancel culture, he’s a man worth taking seriously. And here is what he tweeted earlier this month on the topic:

Dillon’s is an intriguing thesis. Could it be true that cancel culture has run its course? Having failed to adequately stamp out dissent, has cancel culture been replaced by full-throated calls for censorship under the now ubiquitous (and dystopian) language of “misinformation” and “disinformation”?

Dillon cites an article by author and journalist Michael Shellenberger, who could hardly be accused of being a conservative. Shellenberger writes:

Clinton, Gates, Kerry, UN, WEF, et al. say we must let them censor the Internet to save democracy. We must not. Their demands are totalitarian and Orwellian. Deep state leaders are turning regime change tactics developed abroad against the American people.

The “regime change tactics” to which he refers are what’s known in the intelligence community as colour revolutions, which ostensibly destabilised foreign governments and catalysed regime changes in Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004-2005) and Kyrgyzstan (2005) in order to advance American foreign policy interests.

Shellenberger argues that the techniques originally developed by US intelligence to foment regime change abroad have since been adapted for domestic use to suppress dissent within America, specifically on topics such as Covid-19 and the 2020 US election. Those tactics include media manipulation, civil unrest, engineered social movements (ie, cancel culture), and the framing of dissent as extremism and a threat to democracy.

The sudden explosion of efforts across the Western world to stamp out “misinformation”, he argues, are only the latest development on this front.

Shellenberger profiles a handful of the places where these efforts have advanced most effectively:

In truth, governments are waging war on free speech. Australia is at risk of passing sweeping censorship legislation in November. The Irish government has abandoned its hate speech legislation for this term, but governing parties are promising to bring it back. And the European Union is well on its way to implementing the most aggressive censorship agenda in the West.

And, over the last three weeks, one of the world’s most influential and largest billionaires and philanthropists, Bill Gates, and two recent Secretaries of State, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, have all made strong calls to censor the Internet of wrongthink.

As I cast my mind back over the last several years, it occurs to me that both the language of cancel culture and specific, high-profile instances of it have quickly faded from public debate. By contrast, talk about “misinformation” and “disinformation” is everywhere.

To repurpose a popular analogy, not only is the emperor naked — he’s self-consciously streaking around the town square.

At least our overlords have spelt out their sinister intentions. There’s no going back now, it seems. And note that an increasing number of them have painted their targets squarely on Elon Musk’s back. I wonder why?

Until my thoughtcrimes see me dragged off to the gulag (digital or otherwise), I’ll be hanging out on X. I hope to see you there.

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Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.

Image credit: Bigstock

Here's a sample of The Babylon Bee on YouTube

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  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-22 21:27:19 +1100
    Honestly it’s probably closer to your latter definition; as an aside most people who have been “cancelled” often find themselves still well off finically well off so I’d argue it doesn’t actually exist. My understanding of conservatives portrait of cancel culture was essentially people organizing a boycott of someone/something (in essence using their first amendment rights).

    I mostly just like pointing out the hypocrisy of those like Kurt Mahlburg when they bring up topics like this. They seem to focus so much on the left while ignoring the exact same thing on their side. I bring up the example of “And Tango Makes Three”, a delightful children’s book of a homosexual penguin couple at a zoo adopting a penguin. It’s heartwarming, and yet most contributors to this website would censor it from children as “wrongthink” or something to that effect to illustrate that they, too, participate in censorship of ideas they label “dangerous”
  • Rob McKilliam
    commented 2024-10-22 13:55:35 +1100
    Anon: You raise a very important point. What is ‘cancel culture’?
    A major problem today is that people strongly disagree just because they have not defined the terms used. I always enjoy it when someone disagrees with me because I will learn something.

    I think you are suggesting that ‘cancel culture’ is a sub-set of ‘free speech’. As you put it: “using free speech to get people fired.” I don’t think that is right. To me, ‘cancel culture’ is simply a derogatory term used by conservatives to invoke the idea of ‘woke mob rule’.

    What do you think?
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-22 04:05:14 +1100
    Isn’t that what cancel culture is, Rob? People using their free speech to get people fired? I don’t think the point you’re making is the one you think it is
  • Juan Llor Baños
    commented 2024-10-20 19:49:08 +1100
    Great article!! Congratulations!!
  • Juan Llor Baños
    commented 2024-10-20 19:46:58 +1100
    Great article!! Congratulations!!
  • Rob McKilliam
    commented 2024-10-20 09:49:38 +1100
    Anon: Do you think a citizen of the USA called Donald J Trump is entitled to ‘Free Speech’? Yes or No.
  • David Page
    commented 2024-10-20 08:59:25 +1100
    Mrs Cracker, our education standards are dragged down by lumping all the States together. Massachusetts schools, for instance, are as good or better than any in the world. But the more “conservative” the State, the worse the education. As an example, Mississippi schools are appallingly bad.
  • mrscracker
    I suppose children can read whatever materials their parents allow them access to at home but that doesn’t apply to everyone else’s children being exposed to the same in schools and public settings.
    Some people are ok with Tango Makes Three. Others may be ok with Tango Makes Four. Or Five, etc. But that’s per each parent to decide.
    We can barely keep up with the rest of the developed world in education. We have students who graduate high school reading at a 6th Grade level and can’t find other nations on a map. There’s a rural community not far from us that has a 30% adult illiteracy rate.
    First World ideologies get more media attention than working class people’s needs.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-19 22:25:26 +1100
    Rob,

    When the President of the United States is using the bully pulpit to call for someone to be fired/suspended from his private job, that goes beyond the guise of “free speech”, no?

    Thought or another example or cancel culture and censorship: all those book bans! Why can’t kids read “And Tango Make Theee”? I guess that’s “wrong think” from the perspective of the right and also cancel culture
  • Rob McKilliam
    commented 2024-10-19 20:07:44 +1100
    Anon: Calling for someone to be suspended (ie: using free speech) and using cancel culture lawfare (ie: using force) to suspend them, are two different things.

    Emberson: I think you have missed the point. A private company is of course entitled to publish, or not publish, whatever it wants – within the bounds of “the law”. That is ‘free speech’. Government wants to use “the law” (ie: force) to control what private companies can or can not publish. That is anti free speech.

    Successful societies thrive on free speech.
  • David Page
    commented 2024-10-19 11:51:37 +1100
    I see two possible results from the coming election, Trump’s defeat or civil war. Or, possibly, Trump’s defeat AND civil war.
  • David Page
    commented 2024-10-19 11:48:48 +1100
    And now we will glorify January 6th, an act of treason.
  • David Page
    commented 2024-10-19 09:34:21 +1100
    I would be grateful to anyone who could define “cancel culture” for me. I have discussed it with my kids and they say that people whose careers are on the skids will go hard right so they can wrap themselves in a cloak of persecution. As soon as they can lay claim to being cancelled they suddenly have access to a pool of money, that allows them to set up their own shows or blogs. Or, if they are singers or entertainers, they will get gigs on right-wing venues. Kid Rock & Ted Nugent are examples of washed up careers that went that route. No one outside the conservative bubble wants to hear them.
  • Peter Sammons
    commented 2024-10-19 03:05:42 +1100
    Thought provoking and timely article. Thank you Mercatornet.
  • mrscracker
    Just an FYI: the Babylon Bee has a satire film out now about the Jan.6th Capital riot in Washington. I think you have to pay to stream it but the trailer’s free to watch.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-19 00:27:07 +1100
    Quentin,

    lol, that’s a good one. While his skills were never considered “elite” in the league like Bree’s, Brady, Rodgers, he was more than capable of holding down a starting job. Also has more talent than a lot of backups at the time. But that’s beside the point. The main thing is that a candidate for President of the United States, who would later become president, called for the firing of an individual for exercising their first amendment rights. Which is something that Kurt and the right ignore anytime they bring up topics like cancel culture.
  • Quentin Neill
    commented 2024-10-19 00:15:51 +1100
    > Colin Kaepernick after Trump’s public comments he doesn’t have a job in the league anymore.

    That’s a gem. He lost his quarterback job because his quarterbacking skills atrophied and rotted on the vine.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-18 22:21:22 +1100
    Speaking of media, Emberson, there’s also Ron DeSantis threats against tv stations that he would sue them if they ran a pro choice ad for this upcoming referendum in Florida. That surely is a violation of the first amendment as well. I eagerly await Kurt’s commentary on this as well as Trump’s threats to remove CBS’s broadcast license for their Kamala interview. I wonder if he’ll free it the same as he did the article above?
  • Emberson Fedders
    commented 2024-10-18 11:10:02 +1100
    And I also seem to remember just the other day that Trump threatened ABC with their license ig he gets back into power because he doesn’t like what they say.
  • Emberson Fedders
    commented 2024-10-18 11:08:54 +1100
    Of course, social media can ban whomever they want from their platforms. These are private companies. They have no obligation to provide ‘free speech’.

    I’m assuming Mahlburg knows this but that narrative doesn’t fit into the victim-hood mentality of the right,

    And look, feel free to go on Twitter all you want. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Twitter has become a thoroughly unpleasant place and I for one avoid it at all costs.

    My other point is this. Mahlburg complains incessantly about misinformation but surely must also be aware that it is the right that is the proponent of most of the misinformation in the world.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-18 02:00:06 +1100
    I’d also join you on Twitter, but I was unfortunately banned for calling Elon Musk “cisgender” (which, to my knowledge, is a true statement). I guess I committed a thought crime that the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” disagreed with?
  • mrscracker
    I really enjoy the Babylon Bee’s satire & recommend anyone with a sense of humor to check it out. They have some very funny videos.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-17 21:44:28 +1100
    There’s also Trump calling for those who criticize the Supreme Court to be jailed, which surely would be a violation of the first amendment. That’s certainly more consistent than cancel culture, Kurt.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-supreme-court-jail-rally-b2618050.html

    I wonder if you’ll write similarly disapprovingly about this?
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-10-17 21:34:48 +1100
    Colin Kaepernick knows a thing or two about cancel culture. Donald Trump called for him to be suspended from the NFL in 2016 and 2017 for kneeling during the anthem. And wouldn’t you know it, after Trump’s public comments he doesn’t have a job in the league anymore. Why aren’t people talking about this anymore?
  • Kurt Mahlburg
    published this page in The Latest 2024-10-17 16:45:40 +1100

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