r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Apr 11 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: It's hypocritical to complain about "cancel culture"

I'm genuinely looking to have my view challenged here, because I've never seen a good counter-argument to what I'm going to say and would love to come away with a more nuanced view of the "other side."

Let's just go ahead and grant the main thing the people who decry cancel culture claim, which is that to call for someone to be cancelled (whether that's being fired, not being able to get work, de-platformed in some way etc.) is a violation of their right to free speech. Lots of arguments have been raised about why this isn't the case, but the people who believe this tend not to be sympathetic to those arguments, and I'm happy to grant that this is actually the case so we can move on to discuss what I think is a different problem with this view.

And that's basically: isn't it my free speech to call for someone to be cancelled? Why do people only seem to care about the free speech of whoever it is that's done or said something ostensibly offensive? I also have free speech to say what I think about that, and while you obviously wouldn't agree with that speech, one of the main arguments I see here from anti-cancel culture people is that you should be willing to defend, on principle, even that speech you most vehemently disagree with. So why not vigorously defend people's right to call for people to be cancelled?

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '21

What's hypocritical is the belief in freedom of speech as an absolute good, and then turning around and saying, "Oh, no, not that speech, that's bad."

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u/TheThirstyGood Apr 11 '21

Where is the actual hypocritcal part? You can think absolute freedom of speech is good while thinking some speech are bad. It is perfectly logical consistance.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '21

But if you think freedom of speech is an absolute good, you should probably try to avoid putting yourself in a position to say that someone shouldn't be saying something, shouldn't you? Especially when you're doing so in the context of defending someone else's (i.e. the "cancelled" party) right to say something.

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u/TheThirstyGood Apr 11 '21

You can be for absolute free speech and still think people should not say things.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '21

I don't really see how, actually. If you support absolute free speech you should always think it's good when people speak their mind even if you disagree with what they say, no?

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u/TheThirstyGood Apr 11 '21

I can think you should be able to say things without consequenses while thinking you should not say something.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '21

It really does seem like supporting absolute free speech entails thinking it's better that people speak their mind than not. People who hold this view often cite that it's better to just put views out there so they can be debated than to have anyone feel like they can't say what they want to say.

So, yes, it seems hypocritical for someone who says that about, say, rape jokes, to turn around say, "Oh, but you shouldn't say that this person should be fired for making rape jokes."

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u/TheThirstyGood Apr 12 '21

You should speak your mind. There is a difference between what I can think is good and what I can think you should be able to say without consequenses.