Victimhood and the big bad cancel wolf: Can we cancel ‘cancel culture’? 

07/01/2025

Jedaiah Simwanza (she/her) critically examines mob mentality on Campus

Article Image

Image by Markus Winkler

By Jedaiah Simwanza

Here's a story:

In a land a stone’s throw away from Swan Lake, there lived an amicable community of Ducks and Hares. Gobbae the Duck, Dooley the Hare, and Torkena the Tortoise, who had just moved from Sherwood Canal, all lived there. These three were great friends; they walked to college together every morning and walked each other home every afternoon. They always hung out after school. It was a friendship made to last a lifetime.

One Friday afternoon, they went out to the sports field for their daily hangout, except this time was different because Gobbae invited a few of her other friends from their class.

“Did you guys hear?” said Gobbae, leaning in conspiratorially with her flask of Yorkshire tea.

Torkena gasped and nearly popped out of her shell in excitement. Her ears were always burning for a juicy bit of gossip. “No, what is it?” she said.

“You seriously have not heard?” Gobbae laughed. “Oh my goodness – You guys. You guys.”

“Don’t keep us waiting, out with it,” Dooley goaded, floppy ears perking up.

“Alright, fine,” Gobbae said, beak twisting upwards to mimic a keen smile, “but if anybody asks, you didn’t hear this from me.”

“I swear it on my Uncle Harry’s sixtieth baby,” Dooley told her.

She went on to tell them about the latest news trending on Toadbook and Yetigram: Lily Bunny the supermodel was calling off her wedding to Croakin’ Beaver, the pop singer, after her relationship with her modelling agent became public.

“And – and,” Gobbae showed everyone the post. “She’s pregnant – with the agent’s child.”

“Oh, gosh, you’re totally right. It says here she was spotted at Planned Parenthood this morning,” Dooley revealed as he scrolled over the posts on Yetigram. “What the heck? She’s not even showing.”

“You know what? More power to her. She should not be dealing with all this right now, then to throw a baby on top of it all. No way. Her fur, her choice,” Gobbae said.

Torkena shrugged and, with a nervous smile, said, “Not like it’s the baby’s fault. It shouldn’t be the one suffering.”

Gobbae’s eyes snapped up. Dooley stared at her like she’d spurted an extra shell. Gobbae snapped, as did some other Ducks. They quacked so loudly, calling Torkena a “repressive conservative, anti-feminist” who didn’t need to go shoving her misogynistic values down other creature’s throats. Dooley tried speaking up, but Gobbae and the other Ducks promptly sent her away before he could.

Come Monday morning, Gobbae had blocked Torkena’s number. Unfriended her on Yetigram, Toadbook, and even Wingchat. Torkena walked alone to school for the first time in months, and she got strange looks every time she entered the school’s corridor. Gobbae began ignoring her; as did Dooley. Wherever she walked she heard “traitor” or “Bigot” being whispered.

It should’ve ended there, but the worst had yet to come. The hecklers got braver, bullied her openly; her belongings were defaced; soon #AbortTorkena and #Reproductiverightsmatter appeared all over her For You pages; harassment flooded in from all her socials. They turned into death threats very quickly. Torkena dropped out of school and moved back to Sherwood Canal. She was never heard from again.

Unfortunately, Torkena’s tale is just the beginning. Cancel Culture has silenced as many voices as it has elevated, if not more. Stemming from the late 2010s, Cancel Culture has been used as a tool for justice, and has seen a massive surge in popular culture. Shutting down harmful practices, from racism to petty crimes, it’s been perpetuated by the growth of apps like Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), and other mediums of online public communication. Of these harmful practices it elucidates, there is ‘Hate Speech.’ A truly subjective label, when you think about it, because nowadays it has an unspoken, unilateral meaning: ‘any person that disagrees with such and such  belief is an enemy and therefore must be silenced’.

This is awfully reminiscent of a common practice in a variety of governments across history, including communist regimes,otherwise known as ‘censorship’. Why do I mention this? Because they know where to cut the plant at its root: Education.

Of the students that were interviewed regarding censorship in academic discussions over 60% agreed that higher education institutions like the University of York have seen a rise in censorship among its student body, particularly in environments of academic discussion where varied opinions and open discussion ought to thrive. Thanks in large part to social media’s influence, people have developed an awareness of this social phenomenon and often avoid talking about said phenomena altogether due to fear of offending a friend or classmate. Not everyone will agree with each other, to be sure, and academic settings are arguably the safest place for disagreements.

After consulting with students across multiple disciplines about this very issue, it was brought to my attention that there are little disagreements occurring in academic discussions. While this does seem good at first, it alludes to the fact that some may be fearful of voicing their opinions. Each of these students, who were interviewed separately, all agreed to the presence of an unspoken “culture of embarrassment” on campus. Because of the hyper-awareness social media provides – as it lets people know what is popular and what’s not – students are afraid to speak their minds, fearful of judgement. They are fearful of ostracization, more commonly known now as ‘being cancelled’. This is the answer expected when discussing difficult topics, like abortion, which forces those who might agree or disagree into a defensive self-censoring mode. If they’re lucky enough to have a discussion, that is. In other circumstances professors steer away from the matter altogether.

What this does is invite the elephant into the room. By trying to make a select few feel safe, nobody actually does feel safe as feelings are prioritized over healthy arguments. Eggshells are being stepped upon every time a mouth opens, and a deafening silence pervades over what could’ve been a fruitful discussion whenever the instructor opens the floor to their students. Fear of ostracization stifles learning – not only of whatever issue is at hand, but knowledge on how to approach said issue and others outside of class, because that’s where it matters most. Students lose out on practicing being respectful when broaching a sensitive topic around their peers; the best people to practice around because of the University of York’s diverse student body. Therefore there are more opportunities for one to garner knowledge of different perspectives and cultural understandings. Even if it may lead to conflict, gaining such understanding not only benefits one, but the whole, as it instils confidence in a person to tackle difficult issues without harming unwittingly, because ignorance is the deadliest weapon when it comes to cultural differences. In cases of academic discussion, cultural differences tend to be the primary cause of disagreements, and fearful of what they do not know, students will prefer to remain ignorant, making the issue that much harder to approach as the ethnic gap widens at risk of never closing.

Academia at University of York should not be taught with “barriers of silence” because of Cancel Culture, some post-graduate students said. Not only when discussing matters like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in the student body, but also in day-to-day vocabulary has Cancel Culture made its nest. As if by censoring or changing the spelling of words like ‘kll’ and ‘rpe’ will alter their core meanings. It's quite Orwellian,  reminiscent of censoring practices in totalitarian regimes as seen in Orwell's 1984. All that does is make the barrier taller and escalation more likely. It deters constructive disagreements and invites ignorance of critical issues which need to be addressed lest they grow out of proportion. With the elephant already there, it just becomes unbearable and the need to self-censor mounts drastically. Instead of altering and removing words, professors and students at the University of York might consider re-introducing ‘respect’ into the academic vocabulary to create the productive discussions we hope to engage in when concerned with critical topics. It may lead to conflict in the classroom, but better there than more volatile spaces.

Disagreements should not be rare. The absence of debate is not an indicator of peace, but rather it is the calm before the arrival of the storm. Social media has conflated ‘I disagree’ with ‘I hate you’ by fostering an ‘us vs. them’ mentality through instantaneous responses which prioritize emotional reactivity over nuanced discussion. It has become the norm such that one can’t utter the phrase ‘I disagree’ in a seminar without feeling a pinprick of fear. ‘Cancelling’ someone for having different beliefs should not be the norm in a society claiming to prioritise ‘free speech’, let alone in an academic setting. If we can’t talk about difficult issues in these environments designated for free, open discussion, then there’s very little hope we’ll be able to overcome them in the working world. We will have very little hope of approaching them, so deeply would fear of judgement have entrenched itself in our morals, without arousing unnecessary conflict.

8711

8713