How White Religious Conservatives Invented Cancel Culture

It’s time to toss that broken record into the trash. It’s played out. It’s fake news.

Jeremy Helligar
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George Burroughs (c.1652 –1690) reciting the Lord’s Prayer before his execution at Witches Hill, Salem, Massachusetts, on 19
George Burroughs (1652 –1690) reciting the Lord’s Prayer before his execution at Witches Hill, Salem, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1690, after being accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials. Photo: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

At the Republican National Convention in August, President Donald Trump and his cast of sycophants returned to a familiar refrain: “Cancel culture” is the devil, possibly the single greatest hurdle to making America great again. It must be stopped.

For those unfamiliar with The Great American Threat, “cancel culture” is a phenomenon of the “Karen” era, likely to be cited by the type of person who’d be called a “Karen.” (It’s also a term that originated in the Black community, which, I suspect, has a lot to do with how conservatives react to it — but that’s a subject for another story.)

If you’ve been shamed on social media or rendered unpopular and possibly unemployed for committing an unpardonable offense (R. Kelly, Roseanne Barr, Megyn Kelly, and Chick-fil-A), you’ve been canceled. It’s Americans doing what Americans have always done well — judge others — only social media allows everyone to join the mob and wield a degree of influence.

Trump, who has experienced cancel culture from both sides, has turned it into a political grenade against Democrats because, well, isn’t everything their fault? His entire family echoes him…

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