Originally Posted by Pet_Sounds

But looking for quality interaction on MB is like trying to stay hydrated by drinking salt water.

Originally Posted by Guybrush

That's precious coming from a member of the democracy that elected the openly racist Trump as their president who campaigned building the wall.

Did you see it coming or were you too deep in your own echo chambers to see what was happening?

Originally Posted by rubber soul

You know, while you guys are arguing about which side of the pond is more polarizing, did it occur to you that maybe The Europeans and Americans are just as polarized with each other?

Originally Posted by adidasss

Aren't you kind of defeating your own arguments by judging Trump for being "openly racist" while criticizing cancel culture when it comes to LGTBQ issues?

If Chapelle shouldn't be cancelled, then neither should Trump.

I keep repeating the same argument ad nauseam but it serves its purpose, this whole thing wouldn't even be debated if the topic was racism and not trans/queerphobia. Are any openly racist comics being given the largest platform on the planet to air their antiquated views under the guise of "free speech" and "diversity of opinion"? And what's the reason why LGBTQphobia is not treated in the same way that racism is treated?

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by Trollheart

You sound like Buffy after they dragged her back from Heaven.

Originally Posted by WWWP

I want to open a school for MB's lost boys and teach them basic coping skills and build up their self esteem and strengthen their emotional intelligence and teach them about vegetables and institutionalized racism and sexism and then they'll all build a bronze statue of me in my honor and my bronzed titties will forever be groped by the grubby paws of you ****ing whiny pathetic white boys.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

If the European perspective is that the cream rises to the top if we all just talk it out like adults then no wonder you people can't keep Nazis out of your parliaments. The social media echo chambers certainly suck but they are a symptom of polarization, not a root cause and blaming radicalization on itself is a typical liberal viewpoint that ignores material analysis.

If there weren't material conditions that were leading people to look for answers why their life and the world sucks so much then Twitter, Youtube, Fox News, talk radio, etc wouldn't have an audience to wind up. But with every financial crisis the elite class consolidate more and more capital and the market share for everyone else shrinks and shrinks and people get more and more desperate for any analytical lens that makes sense to them.

Worrying about cancel culture and echo chambers as villains isolated from any deeper, more holistic analysis is just simping for the status quo, and blathering on about the free exchange of ideas is ignoring how and why these radical ideas develop in the first place. They develop because people's needs aren't being met and they are angry and emotional, and they often come to their conclusions via anger and emotion with help from somebody who knows how to direct their anger and emotions. It's a marketplace of ideas in the same sense as any marketplace functions on cold reason and logic (hint: they don't).

Originally Posted by Guybrush

I haven't seen Chapelle's special and don't know what he says, but I do find many aspects of cancel culture to be dumb. Do we have to agree on everything in order to accept and tolerate that someone else has a place in society / entertainment / whatever?

Taken to extremes, in the US, you could have comedians for democrats and other comedians for republicans. You could read different books, watch different channels, consume different news sources and entirely different narratives about the world. It removes common ground, segregates people and ups conflict.

It undermines democracy which was built on the idea that we should voice opinions, debate them and place our votes. Differing opinions should come into contact inside our brains and the best ones win. A good thing about that is it makes it possible for people to change their mind. Cancel culture is more like cultural war and you stick to your side/echo chambers where bad opinions can fester unchallenged. If you think your opinions are right, you ironically lose the ability to influence your opponents. You know more about alt right and q-anon than I do, I'm sure. Cancel culture is a small part of the environment that allows stuff like that to blossom.

Increased cancel culture is also one of the consequences of people getting radicalised by social media echo chambers and algorithms feeding us content.

Sometimes cancellation is appropriate, but I don't think the line should be drawn at legal expression of opinions you don't agree with. Cancel Varg Vikernes, R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein - you know, people who would rape or murder.