Cancel me, I need the money.
I don't know who needs to hear this but cancel culture doesn't exist. It's a made up thing in the minds of people afraid they'll punished for something they said in their past they try to forget, try to ignore, yet they know that, one day someone will call them on it.
We've said things we shouldn't, we've all done things we shouldn't. When you realize what you've done and said was wrong, damaging, and hurtful, you should make amends if you can and try to do better. There may still be consequences, but going to jail for rape or losing one's job over sexual harassment isn't cancel culture.
Cancel culture is what once was called political correctness. It's a bugaboo. It's an imaginary thing made up to scare you. You shouldn't have fallen for it then and you shouldn't fall for it now.
Let me go to most recent example of someone who has been canceled: Dave Chapelle. He says he's been cancelled. Because of this, Dave says, his documentary has been disinvited from several film festivals. Because Dave thinks you will want to see that documentary, he's taking it on a stadium tour with Joe Rogan.
Stop and look at that. You can't see the documentary at a film festival but stadium owners are willing to book it out of the goodness of their hearts. Money isn't a concern in the minds of the board of director for the holding companies that manage the stadiums. He's also being supported by Rogan, a man who has a multi-million dollar ($100m?), multi-year contract with Spotify because he gains attention for saying things that offends people.
The few reviews I've seen thus far on the documentary say, yes, it's there, yes, it's a documentary, but there's nothing special in it. From this I infer that it would probably get lost among all the other films except on the individual level. Unless you're a fan of Chapelle and his comedy routines always hit you in your sweet spot, it will probably be forgotten or ignored.
If I understand how Netflix counts viewership of individual shows towards dollars from subscribers, Chapelle was losing money for Netflix until he claimed he was being canceled. His specials have now garnered enough viewers there that he's out of the red. This might be enough to gain him another multi-million dollar, multi-show contract with Netflix.
Chapelle was supposedly cancelled for saying he was Team TERF and...
Wait. I want to break that down. Some have said Chapelle is a TERF or is claiming to be a TERF. I think it's more correct to say that he's expressing support for TERFs, and that's because, going by things he's said, he's not a feminist much less a radical feminist.
Anyway.
Chapelle said trans women and specifically trans women at Netflix want him canceled or have outright canceled him for his transphobic comments and for his support of transphobia. The BIPOC and trans women at Netflix stated they wanted the streaming service to support more productions from trans and specifically BIPOC trans creators. If they wanted him pulled it wasn't said, and, if so, I suspect they knew if Chapelle's streaming numbers didn't improve, he wouldn't get a new contract and the algorithm would begin to bury his shows anyway.
That's why I've been suspicious of all of this. This is all from an old playbook, as old as rock and roll. Elvis swiveled his hips to this because it has a good beat and you can dance to it.
If you were a rock musician and the numbers at your concerts were below what was needed to make even, the performer or their manager would make sure there was a perception of something that would be questionable, possibly offensive, to the right audience. Even if a show wasn't canceled, this could almost always be counted on to create higher ticket sales for the next few shows. This also permitted many recording artists to get out of recording contracts and sign a new one for an even better contract.
These tactics were expanded on during the 80s and 90s by standup comedians and shock jocks. Say something controversial and, once you're pulled off the air or have venues cancel performances, you can claim you're being censored by the Man. Your fans will speak up, aided by comments by free speech advocates and you will be able to sign another, most likely better contract.
As I said, it's an old playbook, and I expect this is what Chapelle and his manager were doing. The problem is, as much as I believe Chapelle's friends that there is no malice in him, damage can still be done. BIPOC trans women are in more danger of violence because they are trans. By his actions, he has potentially added to the possibility of violence. This should have been considered. He has other ways of garnering attention, creating publicity. Why should he actually think, though, and instead use a tried and true tactic.
All of this is my longwinded way of saying, cancel me, daddy, I need the money.