Cancel Culture Comes for Ben Mora

A new hire by the Bernie Sanders campaign was fired after tweets posted under a private account were unearthed. This, too, is cancel culture.

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I’m a card-carrying member of the far left. I mean that literally: I’m a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that still mails people paper membership cards. I have one in my wallet. One area where many of my leftist friends and I part ways, however, is over the idea of cancel culture. They tend to downplay it or deny its existence altogether, whereas I see it as a serious problem.

In my forthcoming book, I discuss the cases of author Barbara Ehrenreich and the YouTuber “ContraPoints” (Natalie Wynn), both of whom were subject to toxic pile-ons by online scolds for pretty innocuous tweets or behavior. Their words and actions were interpreted in the most absurdly uncharitable way imaginable.

These were just a couple of the most infamous cases of left-on-left Twitter mobbing in 2019.

The Marxist theorist and cultural critic Mark Fisher, probably best known for his book Capitalist Realism, wrote a now-classic leftist critique of left-wing cancel culture back in 2013: “Exiting the Vampire’s Castle.” Here’s how it starts:

This summer, I seriously considered withdrawing from any involvement in politics. Exhausted through overwork, incapable of productive activity, I found myself drifting through social networks, feeling my depression and exhaustion increasing.

“Left-wing” Twitter can often be a miserable, dispiriting zone. Earlier this year, there were some high-profile Twitterstorms, in which particular left-identifying figures were “called out” and condemned. What these figures had said was sometimes objectionable; but nevertheless, the way in which they were personally vilified and hounded left a horrible residue: the stench of bad conscience and witch-hunting moralism. The reason I didn’t speak out on any of these incidents, I’m ashamed to say, was fear. The bullies were in another part of the playground. I didn’t want to attract their attention to me.

The most depressing thing about that passage is that, no matter when you read it, it always sounds like could have…