But like Will didn't run afoul of new left-wing social rules. He got fired because someone read a joke tweet in an uncharitable way. This exact thing couldn't have happened 20 years ago because Twitter didn't exist 20 years ago. And I'm struggling to think of analogous situations that would have happened in the pre-Internet world. If som…
But like Will didn't run afoul of new left-wing social rules. He got fired because someone read a joke tweet in an uncharitable way. This exact thing couldn't have happened 20 years ago because Twitter didn't exist 20 years ago. And I'm struggling to think of analogous situations that would have happened in the pre-Internet world. If someone made a joke about lynching George HW Bush in a high school faculty lounge in 1990 would that have led to the person getting fired? I don't think so, but maybe I'm just not familiar enough with pre-Internet workplace norms.
Yeah, I think under the prevailing usage, Will wasn't "cancelled," because he wasn't fired over a left-wing social rule. He was just plain fired.
Not quite 20 (or 31!) years ago, but the Dixie Chicks suffered pretty extreme commercial sanction for expressing a much more banal left-wing view in 2003. Could you have been fired in 1990 for joking in the break room that the vice president should be killed? Maybe! Depends on the workplace. I don't think you'd be fired for it from most workplaces today, which is why Will's firing has led to pretty universal condemnation.
But like Will didn't run afoul of new left-wing social rules. He got fired because someone read a joke tweet in an uncharitable way. This exact thing couldn't have happened 20 years ago because Twitter didn't exist 20 years ago. And I'm struggling to think of analogous situations that would have happened in the pre-Internet world. If someone made a joke about lynching George HW Bush in a high school faculty lounge in 1990 would that have led to the person getting fired? I don't think so, but maybe I'm just not familiar enough with pre-Internet workplace norms.
Yeah, I think under the prevailing usage, Will wasn't "cancelled," because he wasn't fired over a left-wing social rule. He was just plain fired.
Not quite 20 (or 31!) years ago, but the Dixie Chicks suffered pretty extreme commercial sanction for expressing a much more banal left-wing view in 2003. Could you have been fired in 1990 for joking in the break room that the vice president should be killed? Maybe! Depends on the workplace. I don't think you'd be fired for it from most workplaces today, which is why Will's firing has led to pretty universal condemnation.