You’ve probably heard how Fox News’ Gillian Turner and NY Post columnist Matthew Hennessey recently mistook our middle-aged status as a signal we should care about today’s version of political correctness. As Turner implored:
Cancel culture is spreading like wildfire. There is a call for Generation X to lead the charge to save America from the social media mob. Can they do it?
Um, no. From 2 Live Crew to Sinéad O’Connor and Just Say No, we’ve had life-long ringside seats watching moral outrage duke it out with a cause du jour aimed at our lives.
And it was the Fox News demographic who was always trying to take things we loved away from us. Now they want our help? We have an appetite for destruction, sure. But for culture wars, not so much.
This is one of the more understated positive attributes of our generation. By not taking on others’ outrage, we can choose to do our own raging against the machine. Just like we did against Tipper Gore.
The Cancel Culture Club
Not that I care, but Turner’s Underdog cry made me curious about how cancel culture differs from old-school political correctness.
According to Psychology Today, canceling has three defining characteristics:
- Identify a transgression and deem it significant
- Experience strong negative emotions
- Publicly punish the transgressor
So, the big difference between PC and CC is they really want to hurt you and make you cry. Much like a Boy George comeback, it usually doesn’t work.
That’s because in the pig-pile court of public opinion, one person’s enemy is another’s hero. With raging voices on either side of the cultural divide, canceling often, well, cancels itself.
As much as we’d like to help (not), don’t forget we’re middle-aged. That means we’ve got our hands full caring for both Zoomers and Boomers. We’ve got to pick our battles, and when we do, they best not be futile.
Choking on the Ashes of Your Enemy
All of that said, there’s a simple way to express your perspective: a good old-fashioned boycott or protest. From Anti-Apartheid marches to Earth Day rallies back in the day to today’s movements like the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter protests, I’ve always championed causes I care about.
So, please don’t mistake our individualism for apathy; we know how to take a stand. As political journalist Garance Franke-Ruta points out:
My Gen X world when I was young was full of activists, not slackers — AIDS activists, reproductive health advocates, and LGBT fight pioneers.
We fought for our rights, and not just to party. So, canceling other people’s protests just feels extra. Let the Boomers and Millennials fight it out … we’re all good over here at ringside.
Because if there’s one thing The Breakfast Club made clear (other than that each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal) it’s that if people like Richard “Dick” Vernon needed our help, they shouldn’t count on it.
Does that answer your question?
Sincerely yours, Generation X.
Fox News Called On Gen X To Stop “Cancel Culture,” And It Didn’t Go The Way They Hoped (Buzzfeed)
