Within the turbulent past several years, the idea that a person can be “cancelled” — in other words, culturally blocked from having a prominent public platform or career — has become a polarizing topic of debate. The rise of “cancel culture” and the idea of cancelling someone coincides with a familiar pattern: A celebrity or other public figure does or says something offensive. A public backlash, often fueled by politically progressive social media, ensues. Then come the calls to cancel the person — that is, to effectively end their career or revoke their cultural cachet, whether through boycotts of their work or disciplinary action from an employer.

So which is it? Is cancel culture an important tool of social justice or a new form of merciless mob intimidation? If cancelling someone usually doesn’t work, does cancel culture even exist? Or does the very idea of being cancelled work to deter potentially bad behaviour?

These questions have received more and more mainstream consideration over the past few years, as the idea of cancel culture itself has evolved from its humorous origins into a broader and more serious conversation about how to hold public figures accountable for bad behaviour. And the conversation isn’t just about when and how public figures should lose their status and their livelihoods. It’s also about establishing new ethical and social norms and figuring out how to collectively respond when those norms are violated. 

- Vox 

Here, in the latest episode of Lay It On The Line, we talk in lengths about callout/cancel culture- the good, the bad and the worst parts of it.

Host: Shambhavi Jha

Speakers: Angshu Majumdar and Subhralina Chattopadhyay

Audio Edited by Angshu Majumdar.

Backend Team:

Bhaskar Banerjee

Sneh Pranav

Sankhajit Kundu

Shatabdi Panda

Shivangi Mishra

Rohan Ganguly