Those who downplay cancel culture tend to refute the “cancel” part—i.e., “You haven’t been fired for your views” (“…So shut up!)—but those critics overlook the term “culture,” which suggests that it’s not just the act of getting de-platformed at issue, but the pervasive fear of censure that intimidates people into silence. •I generally stay away from the term Critical Race Theory (CRT) because CRT can be a valid theoretical lens and only becomes a problem when it ceases to be just a theory and ripens into dogma that aims to crowd out other perspectives.
