Dig: "Cancel Culture" w/ Moira Weigel, Nikhil Pal Singh, Patrick Blanchfield
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2021
⏱️ 126 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What is so-called cancel culture? Why has it suddenly emerged as arguably the issue in right-wing politics? How does today’s cancel culture discourse differ from the anti-PC discourse that first emerged in the early 1990s? How do we distinguish between liberal opponents of PC like Jonathan Chain and right-wing ones like Donald Trump? And then, finally, is there still a there there? Some problems with The Discourse that we should reflect upon?
Readings:
Some “Politically Incorrect” Pathways Through PC by Stuart Hall ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf
Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy by Moira Weigel theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump
The Use of Free Speech in Society by Asad Haider versobooks.com/blogs/4793-the-use-of-free-speech-in-society
Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at patreon.com |
| 0:05.1 | and by verso books which has loads of great left-wing titles. Perfect for dig listeners like you. |
| 0:12.8 | One that you might like is breaking things at work. The Bloodites are right about why you hate your |
| 0:18.4 | job, by Gavin Mueller. Breaking things at work is an innovative rethinking of labor and machines, |
| 0:25.8 | leaping from textile mills to algorithms, from existentially threatened knife cutters of rural |
| 0:31.7 | Germany to surveillance-sevading truckers driving across the continental United States. Mueller argues |
| 0:38.8 | that the future stability and empowerment of working-class movements will depend on subverting |
| 0:44.5 | these technologies and preventing their spread wherever possible. The task is intimidating, |
| 0:51.5 | but the seeds of this resistance are already present in the neoludite efforts of hackers, |
| 0:56.9 | pirates, and dark web users who are challenging surveillance and control, often through older systems |
| 1:03.7 | of communication technology. Breaking things at work, the Bloodites are right about why you hate your |
| 1:10.7 | job, by Gavin Mueller, out now from verso books. Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin |
| 1:27.6 | magazine. My name is Daniel Denver and I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island. |
| 1:33.6 | What is so-called cancel culture? Why has it emerged as arguably the issue in right-wing politics? |
| 1:41.3 | Why, in other words, are conservatives so focused on Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head at a time when they |
| 1:48.1 | can't think of any sort of compelling politics to oppose Joe Biden's big spending? And how does |
| 1:54.7 | today's cancel culture discourse differ from the anti-PC politics that first emerged in the early |
| 2:00.4 | 1990s? How do we distinguish between liberal opponents of PC like Jonathan Chate and right-wing |
| 2:07.2 | ones like Donald Trump? And what does the fact that they share this single obsession reveal? |
| 2:13.0 | And then, finally, is there or there? However, fundamentally reactionary and bad faith in |
| 2:18.7 | mystifying the cancel culture discourse is. How much of a smoke screen it provides for all |
| 2:24.4 | sorts of attacks on every sort of movement for freedom? Are there indeed ways that we treat one |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -1422 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jacobin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jacobin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.