Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss likened cancel culture to “social murder” on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday night, arguing it isn’t about criticism but “punishment.”
“We’re used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do,” said Weiss, who resigned from The New York Times last month in a public letter to publisher A.G. Sulzberger.
“Criticism is great. What cancel culture is about is not criticism. It is about punishment. It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job,” Weiss told Maher. “The writer Jonathan Rauch [of The Atlantic] called it social murder. And I think that’s right.”
“It’s not just about punishing the sinner. It’s not just about punishing the person for being insufficiently pure. It’s about this sort of secondary boycott of people who would deign to speak to that person or appear on a platform with that person,” she added. “And we see just very obviously where that kind of politics gets us. If conversation with people that we disagree with becomes impossible, what is the way that we solve conflict? It’s violence.”
Joe Concha – The Hill – August 1, 2020.
