“Cancel culture has been cancelled,” Elon Musk wrote a few days ago on his Twitter account (I refuse to call him woke up”. Something is changing: the new ads from Apple or Audi, the publication of essays attributing the essence of ‘wokism’ to the right, the defeat of Kamala Harris… Something is changing. It seems that the fatigue with the impositions and consequences of what we called ‘the ‘woke” is evident, what we do not yet know is if it will be enough, there are too many interests involved in the institutions, in the academy, in the arts and in the media. How many people are separated from hunger by keeping this beach bar from collapsing? How many politicians, academics, journalists or artists have built their careers, and are they sustained, on the pillars of identity and the idea of a society articulated around oppressor/oppressed dualism? What would become of them? They will resist tooth and nail what looks like a substantial change in the culture wars, if not an end. But is an end possible for them? Would it be close, if it were? Is there or will there be a winner? I agree with Zaera-Polo that, at least, we are facing a unique opportunity. And also that the right has always been clumsy when it comes to building a culture, and what we need right now is, precisely, to carve out an alternative. But I believe that it is not only a need or a responsibility of the right, but of all those who believe in democratic values. It is not only a responsibility of the right, but of all those who believe in democratic values. That is where we should put the emphasis, not so much on the right having the obligation to build the culture that will replace the one imposed in recent years by identity movements and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies, as the winner of a battle on barren ground, but in the need for this not to end up becoming an alternative resulting exclusively from a counter-reaction that replicates the method but promoting other ideas. That risk exists. And, given this, we should be prepared to, rather than celebrate a victory, fight the next battle. One that would be new but the same: that of continuing to defend against others the same ideas that we defended against them, since it would not be a question now of, for example, silencing those who wanted to silence us then for disagreeing. It is not the end, it should not, to change the muzzle. It should be to throw this as far as possible and defend that those who canceled are not later canceled, that they can continue expressing their ideas out loud, even if the rest of us continue to openly disagree (it is advisable not to confuse the rabid defense of the act of expressing an idea with the defense of that idea itself). That is why it does not seem like a victory to celebrate, but rather a failure, that there are those who abandon Twitter today: because they do so, not to demand greater freedom of expression, but to demand less. And, in the same way that I agree with Alejandro, I disagree with Elon Musk: I would not even cancel the cancel culture. I recognize in the phrase the ‘punch’ of good slogans, of the catchy motto, of the chorus of a summer song. But, I insist, I prefer not to cancel even the canceller. And, at this point, I would prefer that this awakening from the ‘woke’ vigil not be doing the same thing that others did. I would prefer it not to be a starting over.
#Rebeca #Argudo #change #muzzle #snout
