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Steve QJ's avatar

"He finally put his cards on the table. We have to believe him, that questions of "learning" or "growing" or "redemption" really are irrelevant to him and many like him, because they don't care about any of that."

Yeah, I was impressed by his honesty here too!πŸ˜… It's not often that cancel culture's defenders even admit that it exists, never mind that it's about exerting power over others. And yes, in my experience of dealing with these modern-day puritans, the point is entirely power over others. But not in a way that has any political ends (or at least the ends are incidental). The primary goal seems to be the same as the typical bully; a way to calm their own insecurities and/or self-loathing by finding a target to attack.

I think you're spot on about the lack of interest in nuance and a fair hearing of the offenders' "crimes", but I think the reason so many of them are willing to do this is that they don't really care what the person said. They aren't even particularly interested in defending an ideology, and certainly not in making the lives of any particular group of marginalised people better. They want a target that they can attack whilst being praised by their peers. They want to be able to indulge their darkest, most vindictive instincts but still tell themselves the they're the "good guys." It's genuinely horrifying to see this psychosis spreading.

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