Cancel Culture. Do you support it?

It's just political correctness gone mad. Times were less enlightened then, yes, but that is the way it was and we must acknowledge and accept it. One cannot rewrite history. As you rightly said, Shark, we can learn from it.

It has gone too far now. I really don’t understand this desire to re-write history by eliminating all aspects of it. It has be understood and accepted that times have changed, and that some aspects of culture have aged horribly. Eliminating everything from history is not the answer.

Cancel culture is on a slippery slope. Sure most of us were fine with canceling rapist scum. But if we start canceling anyone for anything, it starts losing its potency as a punishment and resembling hysteria. 

As for old movies like “Gone with the Wind,” they still contain historical relevance even if they don’t qualify as modern entertainment. If HBO doesn’t want to air films like that, it’s their choice, however it does come off as a bit inconsistent when they’ve never shied away from graphic or inappropriate content before. Meanwhile Disney’s choice not stream “Song of the South” came at no surprise. 

The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a staple in American high schools. I specifically remember no one volunteering to read it out loud when the teacher asked, assumably due to the risk of stumbling upon a certain slur. Yet at least partially for that reason, for that discomfort, books on these topics are required reading. 

I think there is a difference between removing something from modern settings versus erasing its content. It’s often valid for critical study and given we’re primed for that, the material should not be inaccessible. Otherwise, there’s a bit of a creep factor. 

Liberals won't be happy until we're all locked up in prison camps being spoon fed their socialist propaganda!

How do y'all feel about JK Rowling getting cancelled?

I don't really give a shit either way, so for lack of a better option I chose "It Depends." I think there is a good purpose to refusing to patronize someone who says or does abhorrent things. I do agree that cancel culture the noun can go a little overboard at times, but frankly I'm failing to see any tangible effects from this outside of the Weinstein Company/Kevin Spacey situations. How is your life objectively, quantifiably worse because some fuckhead on Twitter said Fred Rogers is "cancelled?" And I know I'm not going to miss COPS, it was such a lame show anyway.

In the end though, it's important to remember that the worst examples of cancel culture are just another instance of what in earlier times would have been referred to as "moral panic." It's just a part of human society and you're going to have to get used to it, because it's been happening since time immemorial. You can fight against the "cancellation" of particular people or media, but you're never going to win the war against the behavior. And believe me, moral panics have occurred for much stupider reasons than people saying racist stuff or sexually assaulting others.