Cancel culture is imagined. And beyond which, not at all relevant to what's being discussed here.

In the case of people who have tied their real lives to their online life... Celebrities for example... There can in some cases be social consequences. Bill Cosby for example recently got out of rape charges, and there's nothing wrong with condemning a person for that.

The vast majority of what people whine about in cancel culture however isn't even real. It's just people not associating with trash... Which is generally turned into a boogeyman by trash. People crying about censorship while they are standing in front of a global alliance. Professional martyrs all.

However, regardless of any discussion about the validity of "cancel culture", that's not what's being discussed in a lack of consequence.

Look at the countless manipulated troll movements that have sprung up... Look at online harassment... Look at easily organized extremism online which are amplified in these groups.

Yes, they've always existed. In the past though, they could be shunned away instead of coagulating into infectious cysts.

Look at how people are indoctrinated into a wide variety of hate groups online. And how it's just a normal and accepted thing that every thread is going to be filled with these types of people and we've just taught ourselves to ignore them.

You want to know what the consequence is for me harassing you? I might have to make a new account.

Oh no cancel culture.

You want to know what the consequences for me setting up a movement to indoctrinate people to a hateful ideology? Either nothing or the advancement of my ideals, depending on if it is successful or not.

Look at the goddamn state of things. This isn't normal human interaction, we're not programmed to work like this.

In a normal social situation, when one of your friends says some stupid shit about women, or says some racial shit, social pressure is applied to fix it. To improve them. To mellow out their sharp edges more in line with social norms. Those social norms aren't always good, hell knows me see that through history but it still applies a moderating influence.

On the internet those same reactions don't happen, you simply find somebody that shares those views and supports them.

If somebody is hurt in a relationship, outside the internet social circles can have a moderating influence on them. Online it is a simple thing to find like-minded people to tell you you should hate women for what happened and that takes away the pain. A community that agrees, and then amplifies you.

All under the comforting safety of anonymity. So you can all say the most extreme things you want, amplifying others without even realizing it.

It's not healthy. And it's downright dangerous, as we continue to see.

These groups spread lies as facts so easily that it's maintaining an internal reality. Large scale groups of people who genuinely believe Obama was a Muslim and that his wife is a man... These aren't groups being moderated out through social pressure, they are amplifying each other.

That is the issue.

If cancel culture existed as a real thing, those people wouldn't exist.

But it doesn't. The only thing that does exist is people not wanting to associate with a celebrity who rants that nonsense publicly... In those cases, sure there can be consequences. The same consequences that should exist in day-to-day life, that should exist within your social circles. If you have a friend that's saying that shit, any reasonable person would stop associating with that friend... Oh no, life is cancel culture.