Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture, Kovalik Dan

The public shaming of individuals for actual or perceived offenses, often against emerging notions of proper racial and gender norms and relations, has become commonplace. In a number of cases, the shaming is accompanied by calls for the offending individuals to lose their jobs, positions, or other status. Frequently, those targeted for cancellation simply do not know the latest, ever-changing norms (often related to language) that they are accused of transgressing--or they have honest questions about issues that have been deemed off-limits for debate and discussion.

Cancel This Book offers a unique perspective from Dan Kovalik, a progressive author who supports the ongoing movements for racial and gender equality and justice, but who is concerned about the prevalence of cancelling people, and especially of people who are well-intentioned and who are themselves allied with these movements.

While many progressives believe that cancelling others is a form of activism and holding others accountable, Cancel This Book argues that cancellation is oftentimes counter-productive and destructive of the very values which the cancellers claim to support. And indeed, we now see instances in the workplace where employers are using this spirt of cancellation to pit employees against each other, to exert more control over the workforce and to undermine worker and labor solidarity.