It was just a few years ago when cancel culture was rampant, with businesses and individuals worried at every turn that the "woke mob" would descend on them over a real or perceived offense and destroy their livelihood. But the arrival of the second Donald Trump presidency has brought a reversal of the left's decades-long grip on the cultural narrative. Suddenly, businesses are dropping woke initiatives, no longer in fear of the "mob." The left's recent attempt to cancel a DOGE employee failed when Elon Musk reinstated the worker amidst overwhelming public support. A former victim of cancel culture is heralding this shift, saying Trump and Musk have "Just Canceled Cancel Culture."
The reelection of Trump may not be the cause of this reversal, but another symptom of it. Dr. Steve Turley, author and host with TurleyTalks, credits what he calls the rise of techno-populism. "You're seeing this massive populist backlash, no longer wanting to live under the rule of progressive elites controlling information," he tells KTRH. "We now have access to the information through technology, so we don't need them anymore and we can fact check them."
"(The legacy media) exercised an extraordinary influence in terms of what's allowed, not just words but concepts," he continues. "And with the rise of techno-populism, we have access to the very same digital information (as the networks), so now the people are in a position to actually fact check the fact-checkers."
Turley also points out that cancel culture and censorship have alienated even many on the left, as evidenced by former Democrats like Musk and Joe Rogan who abandoned the party over this very issue, or others like Bill Maher who have called out the party. "Wokeness divides the left and unites the right," says Turley.
"So I think the rise of techno-populism, and the fact that wokeness splits the left and unites the right, in the end made all the cancel culture just a blip, and hopefully a very small one on our history."
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