Cancel Culture on Campus: ‘Most of Us Are Terrified’
December 31, 2024 at 08:30PM“At 20 you should be old enough to take responsibility for your actions, but nothing should be unforgivable,” writes Alice Thomson in this investigation into cancel culture at elite universities. Quoting numerous case studies, Thomson finds peer-on-peer policing has become a regular part of university life, with students deemed to step out of line ostracized, sometimes with devastating consequences. Traditionally, university is a time to make and learn from mistakes, but Alice Thomson offers a thoughtful look at what it means when that is no longer allowed. (Subscription required.)
In the Eighties and Nineties, student groups tended to be formed along private school/state school lines, among rugger buggers and debaters, actors and engineers. There were rumours of bad behaviour at the Bullingdon Club at Oxford or the Pitt Club at Cambridge, but this feels different. It’s no longer about drug-fuelled nights throwing bread rolls, calling each other nicknames and chasing each other naked round quads. Then everyone was supposed to take a bad joke or accept a quick grope. Boorish behaviour was normal and excused or avoided. The end of that era should be celebrated, but this calling out of the loudmouths, oddballs, misogynists and gropers may have tipped into an overly condemnatory age.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/12/31/cancel-culture-on-campus-most-of-us-are-terrified/
via IFTTT
Watch