[TheOtherHobbes]

They improve their social status, which potentially makes them more powerful and influential within their tribe.

Unfortunately this can be entirely orthogonal to making genuine improvements in how humans relate to each other.

You're dealing with some deep seated flaws in human social psychology, and the polarised morality of cancel culture doesn't leave room to explore potential solutions which are based on that uncomfortable truth.

You're either an insider who agrees with The Cause or an outsider unbeliever who must be reeducated or destroyed.

This can feel great for participants, in a slightly manic way. But there's no space for a more nuanced view, and that makes stable solutions unlikely.

[dguaraglia]

> You're either an insider who agrees with The Cause or an outsider unbeliever who must be reeducated or destroyed.

This can be also said of the 'anti-anti' crowd. Their whole objective is to moralize about how bad the 'anti' crowd is and telling them to shut up, while throwing a number of perfectly valid concerns out the window in the process. While most people in HN might leave it at denouncing the behavior, people have been doxxed, harassed online and in person for 'canceling' someone or something before.

BTW, I hate the 'cancel culture' term. I hate how it is used by people who - given the opportunity - would 'cancel' LGBT rights, immigration, etc. Every time I see someone using the term, I can't help but feel they've fallen for Propaganda 101.