Discussing "cancel culture" on the "Politics + Media 101" podcast [transcript included]

"My one major criticism of [cancel culture] is that you can't really define it. That's kind of a problem because you can't have a ... nuanced conversation about a topic if you can't define it."

Hello, once again, dear readers.

I recently appeared on the Politics + Media 101 podcast to discuss “cancel culture,” Spotify, Joe Rogan, etc. They just put this out, and you can download it at pretty much any podcast streaming service. It was a good conversation!

Below, for paid subscribers, I’ve included a transcript of the conversation. The Present Age is a reader-supported newsletter. If you support my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Transcript, Politics + Media 101, February 14, 2022:

Politics & Media 101: This is Politics and Media 101.

Parker Molloy has a lot of incredible thoughts on so-called cancel culture. Like all of our other episodes, this is an edited version of a much longer conversation that was taped live. If you want to join us, ask one of our upcoming guests a question, or hear past episodes, please visit our website PM101.live. Our next episode this Wednesday will feature Eric Erickson, who's a conservative radio host.

But back to today's conversation, as you may have seen in the news, Joe Rogan has come under fire for saying offensive things and also spreading straight-up misinformation about the COVID pandemic. We started out by asking Parker's thoughts on this, on what Spotify's obligation should be as his distributor, and on what, if anything, people are really referring to when they say cancel culture in a contentious political conversation. Without any further ado, let's roll the tape.

What does cancel culture mean to you?

Parker Molloy: Well, that's kind of the question. Cancel culture, in itself, is sort of this buzzword that gets thrown around. And it's one of many buzzwords that get used in politics and media. You've got cancel culture, call-out culture, political correctness. These are all kind of describing the same thing. Woke, wokeness, wokeness run amuck, PC culture gone amok. These sorts of things have described the same kind of phenomenon for decades, really.