Cancel "cancel culture"

But conservatives are now hijacking the term to refer to any criticism at all, no matter how justified. So attempting to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments is “cancel culture” according to Rep. Jim Jordan. And Rep. Matt Gaetz described Trump’s second impeachment as the “zenith of cancel culture.” Sorry, no. Sometimes, not often enough frankly, you have to accept the consequences of your actions. When you’re a conspiracy-mongering fanatic like Greene or an insurrectionist like Trump, you’ve got to expect a little blowback.

Certainly intolerance of anti-Trump views has come to characterize big swaths of the right. They’re practicing their own form of wokeness. So perhaps sane people can agree that both of these tendencies are stupid, narrow-minded, and antithetical to the values of a free society?

But even short of that, those who wish to end the practice should desist from invoking the term. By labeling any criticism or contradiction as “canceling,” they’re cheapening the concept, and making it easier for real abuses to go unnoticed.