The Best Way to Fight Identity Politics and Cancel Culture; Stop Capitulating to It

Over the last decade or so, cancel culture and social media mobs have become an increasingly large part of society. Seen as the bane of many a Twitter user and corporation, they’ve led to people getting fired, deplatformed and entire companies destroyed thanks to a social media controversy or questionable comment online.

It’s insane, and it’s both became a danger to individuals and a near insurmountable barrier to participation in society for those with different thought processes or psychological differences.

But there is a way to fight it. One which if done correctly, will shut down this abhorrent philosophy in its tracks.

And that’s to flat out ignore its proponents when they try and force their beliefs on others/bring down their enemies.

Because at the end of the day, here’s the thing about SJWs, identity politics pushers, cancel culture fanatics and other such individuals; they’re a tiny minority of the population who have zero power over the rest of us.

Seriously, they do. If you put every whining voice on Twitter together, they wouldn’t fill a single stadium. They’re irrelevant, and don’t represent the majority of the population anywhere on Earth.

However, the internet’s gave them an oversized megaphone to shout through, plus a giant audience that thinks they’re more numerous than they are because of it. That’s what keeps cowing all these companies when employees get fired for ‘politically incorrect’ jokes on social media. Or internet platforms whenever some site they host becomes ‘controversial’. They see the complaints on Twitter, and imagine there’s some magical army of people who could bring down their business if they resist their demands.

But there isn’t. Instead, there’s somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand nutcases who believe every moment of their life is about the ‘culture war’ against the ‘other side’, and many billions of others rolling their eyes at the sheer absurdity of it all.

So the solution here is simple:

Ignore and resist their demands.

Did some employee of yours say some joke that got out of hand and get people calling for his/her firing?

Don’t fire them. Instead, call out the crowd and ask them ‘what are you going to do about it?’

Because in most cases, the answer is ‘nothing’. They won’t do anything, and they can’t do anything. They’re not your audience, and their business likely means nothing as far as sales are concerned.

In other words, they’re like that intimidating dog who’s all bark, no bite. They put on a big song and dance about their complaints, but they’re genuinely irrelevant and can do virtually nothing even when pushed.

Same solution works when dealing with ‘cancel culture’ too, especially if you’re a celebrity that the ‘internet’ has seemingly turned against. The complaints have very little effect on your actual popularity.

Just ask PewDiePie. He may have gotten a reputation after certain videos, but it hasn’t exactly hurt his viewership or subscriber count. And the same is true of virtually every celebrity and brand hurt by one controversy or another.

Channel Awesome? Well it lost a lot of creators, but on the Nostalgia Critic front, its still going strong views wise. The channel is growing on YouTube too.

JonTron? No real loss there either.

Hell, even someone as utterly loathsome as Logan Paul hasn’t really faced any lasting consequences for his actions. He still has millions of subscribers, and makes a living off his YouTube career and fame.

So if you’re even remotely a decent person, it’ll affect you even less. Internet controversies and online mobs are paper tigers with the effectiveness of a chocolate teapot.

And that’s true of all sides of the political spectrum too. The number of people who actually identity as ‘alt-right’ (or even more extremely, fascists/Neo Nazis/whatever) is so tiny that it’s virtually irrelevant. Even looking at their recent failed attempts at ‘protests’ can prove that one.

Just like their SJW counterparts, they’re not going to be able to affect the success of your work unless you let them. Ignore their complaints, ignore their attempts to get you in trouble, and watch the controversy fizzle out in the same way.

Same setup works for universities too. We’ve all heard the stories right? The stories about students going overboard and raising huge debates about statues and safe spaces and being offended and what not?

Well it’s all got a very simple solution that even the worst college admins can use to shut it down.

Namely, having the guts to say no. Just say you’ve listened to their feedback, but that you won’t be making any changes. That’s it.

And if they don’t like that?

Tough luck. Tell ’em to drop out and go elsewhere. It’s their choice after all. They can either stay and deal with it, or leave and enjoy the crippling student debt on top of a non existent degree.

Of course, that’ll get you a bit of criticism. Maybe a few angry protests, students screaming at you to resign, even a few passionate newspaper articles if you annoy enough of them.

But there will be no long term consequences. All that hysteria will inevitably amount to nothing.

So ignore it. Don’t treat controversies like the end of the world, don’t give in to demands from bullies and extremists, and run your workplace, school, family or life as you see fit, not how a bunch of Twitter mobs think you should run it.

Do that, and both social mobs and ‘cancel culture’ will fade away into history, their effects on society being as irrelevant as their proponents.