Dispatches from the Abyss: Punitive Culture does not Equate to Progress

I was thinking about the punitive nature of people and how its become reactionary punishment and scorn with minimal emphasis on equity and education. Granted some folks are beyond being educated otherwise, but in a lot of cases it takes time and not being treated like a piece of shit first and strung up in the social media public square for folks to abuse and throw rotten vegetables at to facilitate change of any meaningful and sustainable measure. Any single misstep - even when an apology is offered - gets met with elitist snobbery while continuing to beat the dead horse - and the dead horse is you. It's almost as if people want to be offended and outraged all the time and most of it is inconsequential yet the witch hunts continue as the purity tests become harder to pass. 

Cancel culture had its place, but it has gotten so out of hand and now everyone wants some sort of social media street cred for calling out <insert random thing here> and trying to cancel people because it gives them some false sense of superiority and moral supremacy. It also pings beyond the signal to noise ration where more serious reasons get flooded with 'I want to cancel this person because I cannot accept opinions that differ from my own even when the facts and history say otherwise." To be fair, I did get 'canceled' by a friend for daring to even question cancel culture citing that I wasn't worth bothering with if that's how I feel -- for questioning cancel culture in the face of free will. I've had other friends turn on me for not joining them in gang stalking and dogpiling their "enemies." No big loss. 

The problem is that if you cancel everything and everyone for being problematic - what is left? Banal white washed mediocrity that neither offends nor pleases. 

I've had problems with cancel culture for a long time because there is no rhyme or reason to some of it and often there is a push-pull of moral supremacy that demands change overwriting the free will of others. Personally speaking, I make my own decisions, and will act according to my own free will, morals, and reasoning and not that of others bullying others into submission. This is not to say that some folks are not deserving of cancellation -- like JK Rowling. I am glad that I illegally downloaded the audiobooks and never gave her a red cent directly outside of having watched the films on Netflix when they came out. However, your choices are your own, and I have met folks that are part of the groups she openly persecutes that cite the 'separate the art from the artist' modality and are perfectly find continuing to participate in the Harry Potter world. 

When it comes to separating the art from the artist - I ask myself one question first - are they benefiting from this in any way? If the author or artist is dead, does my reading their book knowing the context of which they are considering problematic? I may or may not choose to read them based on my own decisions. Julius Evola is a good example of this. I have a BFA in art history so I was familar with him through studying the Dada/Surrealist art movements. He dovetails around into the occult spectrum and has written many books. The problem is that he was tied to both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which on some level is very likely to influence his writing. I have a choice. I can read his works knowing to frame them through this lens as he is dead and not benefiting my reading his work or I can refuse to read them on principal. That is my choice to make and I have chosen not to read them at this time. 

We should be moving from the punitive aspects of cancel culture to informed culture. I have the knowledge to make a choice. I can choose to read Evola's work knowing his ties to fascism or I can choose not to. I've seen the internet zeitgeist collective shit its pants over history books on Nazi Germany citing 'who would own a book like this' Of course, you can assume some white nationalists would -- but history professors exist and do history majors. The book in question was 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' - a book I owned at one point in time in my life when I took a History of the Holocaust class in college. In order to understand history, you kind of have to understand history -- all of it. 

One of the critical thinking skills that I developed through the study of theory, criticism, analysis, philosophy, and aesthetics is that you can look at an artwork, book, historical event, fashion, music, etc. through different lenses. Meaning how does this piece of art translate through a psychoanalytic model - are we leaning into Freud? Jung? Lacan? or are we looking at the neo-Lacanians? We can shift and look at it through Structualsit, Marxist, Post-Structuralist, Feminist, Deconstructionist, and numerous other modalities. At the end of the day, we can have very different and also valid interpretations of the work in question and those often can provide conflicting data and translations. This is how I approach the world and my occult studies. I find the 'all or nothing' modalities to be lacking in critical thinking, nuance, and discernment with very little understanding that numerous things can be true at the same time even when they are conflicting. We really need to move beyond this because it affects all areas of our lives. I studied performance and body art in college some of which was meant to challenge social norms and to offend -- that was the whole point of it!!!!

As a disabled small business owner and creator, this is quite treacherous to navigate. I am human and imperfect which I will readily admit that, but having to second guess every little thing as to who it might offend and thereby who is going to try to cancel me this time is exhausting and to be quite frank people get offended over really petty stuff. I have offended people for making a snarky comment about a font, providing easily googeable information on Siouxsie and the Banshees, accused of 'credentialism' when trying to add context to something based upon my education and work experience, people don't realize when I am agreeing with them, pointing out the fallacy of only one interpretation is valid when apparently all others are dismissive and you are a jerk, for pointing out that Auschwitz jokes aren't funny, and other various and sundry reasons none of which really hold much merit beyond being misunderstandings or I said something stupid (I'm human - it happens.) 

WE HAVE LOST THE PLOT. 

Valid criticisms of cancel culture get lumped in with those that just want to be assholes without consequences usually under the guises of free speech. For example, a 'Goths against cancel culture' group formed around a festival that dis-invited a few performers for being openly anti-trans and other issues. The organizers had every right to do it as it reflects poorly upon them to ignore it when their vendors, performers, and attendees spoke out against it. However, it turned into a group of people butthurt for not being able to extend their freedom to be unapologetic assholes on the world -- of course this was mostly the MAGA contingency in that group. We shouldn't let valid criticisms get lost in the signal to noise ratio.

We cannot assume that experientially and educationally that everyone is on the same page and always has been and always will be. This closes the door for growth and exchanges that foster understanding. The United States of America are barely united even on a State level. I live in Pennsylvania - you can't equate a large city like Philadelphia with wealthy old money suburbs to the Coal Regions to the Amish to Appalachia to Pittsburgh and every other direction. My experiences living in a small town of 10,000 are very different than every places I lived in Philadelphia. I went through massive culture shock when I moved back home in 2023. We all are on a sliding scale of access, education, and experience amongst a whole host of plot points marking other factors that will determine where we end up at this point in time in our lives. Those differences can be wild. I remember in the early days of the internet talking to a life long New York City resident and they could not fathom that some housing complexes could fit the population of my entire town in them and they thought cow tipping was hilarious and could not believe that it was a real thing. New York City is about 50ish miles away which is not far in the grand scheme of things. We have to stop punishing each other because our lived experiences are different. 

This leads me to ask why are a lot of the ACAB folks also self appointed cancel culture police? I have seen a punitive shift in which everyone must be punished for every single slight whether intentional or not. I cannot help but think that this has to do with the influx of purity culture that has seeped out from Christian fundamentalism and the move towards authoritarian fascism in America. I cannot speak for the rest of the world, but many of these problems are not isolated to the United States.

How do we resolve these issues? We move from cancel culture and punitive measures over every single infraction and embrace informed culture. There are plenty of folks and organizations that I will not support. I will gladly tell you any day as to why -- but at the end of the day its your choice. If we cancel everything and everyone problematic -- we will have empty museums and libraries and there will be no need for education because it might offend someone's delicate senses. If we ignore this then, we are well on our way to Idiocracy standards of existence. Hard pass, so let's find ways to do better by ourselves and each other.