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Comment by badRNG | Hacker News Reader

This doesn't seem to cover "cancel culture" more generally, but narrows in on regular workers being terminated for their political beliefs.

Is that what cancel culture is? I certainly don't think that's what most folks are referring to when they discuss "cancel culture." Is what's being mentioned here the common act of terminating employees who go on racist rants or act out violently and go viral? The piece preempts the objection of employers protecting employees from hateful conduct (without taking a stab at how exactly one should balance those interests,) which makes me think that these terminated employees are at least a portion of what the author is discussing.

I share the author's skepticism for the utility "Right To Work" laws provide workers, but I don't understand how this relates to "cancel culture."

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Not only "for their political beliefs", though.

Even if you may not have one belief and you have made an "ok" symbol to say "ok", if someone takes a photo, and they pretty much paint you as someone with a particular political belief, because you made a particular gesture that could perhaps be linked to a political belief, you may lose your job.

That's cancel culture.

It's simply easier to just do what the mob says otherwise you will get overwhelmed, in terms of handling PR, to begin with, when they can easily say "This company supports someone with a political belief, boycott them". You may not have the funds to defend yourself, and the time you spent investigating the issue could be also the amount of sales you may lose. So the easiest way out for you is to simply let this person go.

edit: added latest paragraph

Cancel culture is calling for firings or other loss of status due to expressing a political view or social view that does not conform to a large in-group with the ability to draw attention to an artifact (often taken out of context, with no due process) that undermines your reputation.

The other word for cancelling someone is bullying them.

Cancel culture is right-wing code for “facing the consequences of my actions.”

No longer is being fired for being a Nazi facing the consequences of one’s actions, it’s the result of a targeted harassment campaign aka “cancel culture.”

Bullying implies the aggressor has a power advantage over the victim.

You could just as easily say it is code for people on the left to impose their personal moral view as a Borg-like culture mandate where any dissent whatsoever will lead to having your life ruined through mob justice that considers no facts, context or due process.

> The piece preempts the objection of employers protecting employees from hateful conduct (without taking a stab at how exactly one should balance those interests,) which makes me think that these terminated employees are at least a portion of what the author is discussing.

I assumed their thinking was that if the electrician was really doing the gesture they were fired for, the law would allow the firing. But the law would provide a recourse where the electrician could sue for their job back if it turned out the mob (and firing manager) were mistaken or didn't have sufficient proof.

I doubt such a law really would provide much cover for right wing people to bring them to the table, given the left has been redefining "hate" continually to cover more and more of the right half of the spectrum.

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