ANTON HARBER: Between the powerless and the mob: the uses of woke and cancel culture
There can be few phrases more abused — and weaponised — than “woke” and “cancel culture”. They are thrown around with abandon to denounce ideas, people and things one does not like, and it has become commonplace to see this presented as the major threat to free speech in the West.
“With woke-ism, aren’t we becoming too sensitive about what we can or cannot say? Aren’t we silencing opinions we don’t like?” a radio host asked me this week. It struck me as a strange question: in a society such as ours with such deeply imbedded issues of race, gender and inequality, surely a heightened awareness and responsiveness about these social justice concerns is a good thing?..
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