Uprise of the Shrinking Violets: Cancel Culture in Media

Authors

  • FLORIAN FOLLERT
  • WALTER E. BLOCK
  • FRANK DAUMANN

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52195/pm.v20i1.858

Abstract

We are greatly indebted to two unusually active and insightful referees whose comments have enabled us to greatly improve this present paper. It goes without saying, but we will say it anyway, the usual provisos prevail. We, not they, are responsible for all remaining errors, omissions, infelicities, not they. Furthermore, we have to thank the participants of the 6th Annual Madrid Conference on Austrian Economics for discussing the topic as well as the organizers for awarding a previous version of this paper with the 2nd Macrotrends Prize for the development of Austrian Economics.

References

Alba, D., Frenkel, S. (2021): “Calls Grow to Discipline Doctors Spreading Virus Misinformation. A tiny number of doctors have had an outsize influence in spreading false information about Covid-19 and vaccines,” August 27, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/technology/doctors-virus-misinformation.html.

Alperstein, N. M. (2019): Celebrity and Mediated Social Connections. Cham: Springer.

Anderson, W., Block, W.E., Dilorenzo, T.J., Mercer, I., Snyman, L., Westley, C. (2001). “The Microsoft Corporation in Collision with Antitrust Law,” The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, Vol. 26(1), pp. 287-302.

Anderson-Lopez, J., Lambert, R. J., & Budaj, A. (2021). “Tug of War: Social Media, Cancel Culture, and Diversity for Girls and The 100,” Kome: An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry, 9(1), pp. 64-84.

Bagus, P. (2008): “Human Rights Inflation and Property Rights Devaluation,” Independent Institute. 2nd Prize Essay competition, https://www.independent.org/students/essay/winners2008.asp.

Bagus, P., Daumann, F., Follert, F. (2021): “Cancel Culture, Safe Spaces, and Academic Freedom: A Private Property Rights Perspective,” SSRN, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4153396.

Bagus, P., Peña-Ramos, J.A., Sánchez-Bayón, A. “COVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteria.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 18, 1376.

Beard, J. (2020): “Click bait, cancel culture, and the rhetoric of civil discourse,” Georgia International Conference on Information, http://dr.jeanniebeard.com/2020/02/click-bait-cancel-culture-the-rhetoric-of-civic-discourse/.

Bentham, J. (2000 [1823]): An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, https://historyofeconomicthought.mcmaster.ca/bentham/morals.pdf.

Berg, Ch. E., Lund, A. B. (2012): “Financing Public Service Broadcasting: A Comparative Perspective,” Journal of Media Business Studies, Vol. (9)(1), pp. 7-21.

Block, W.E. (1973). “A Comment on ‘The Extraordinary Claim of Praxeology,’ by Professor Gutierrez”, Theory and Decision, Vol. 3(4), pp. 377-387.

- (1980). “On Robert Nozick’s ‘On Austrian Methodology’,” Inquiry, Vol. 23(4), pp. 397-444.

- (1994): “Total Repeal of Anti-trust Legislation: A Critique of Bork, Brozen and Posner,” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 8(1), pp. 35-70.

- (1999): “Austrian Theorizing, Recalling the Foundations: Reply to Caplan,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Vol. 2(4), pp. 21-39.

- (2015): “Natural Rights, Human Rights, and Libertarianism,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 74(1), pp. 29-62.

- (2016): “How we come to own ourselves,” Societas et Ius, Issue 5, pp. 7-14.

- (2021): “Socialism Is Not What You Think It Is. Neither Is Fascism,” May 17; https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2021/05/17/socialism_is_not_what_you_think_it_is_neither_is_fascism_777083.html.

Boudreaux, D.J., Dilorenzo, T.J. (1992): “The Protectionist Roots of Antitrust,” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 6(2), pp. 81-96.

Bouvier, G. (2020): “Racist call-outs and cancel culture on Twitter: The limitations of the platform’s ability to define issues of social justice,” Discourse, Context & Media, Vol. 38, pp. 1-11.

Bouvier, G., Machin, D. (2021): “What Gets Lost in Twitter “Cancel Culture” Hashtags?,” Discourse and Society, Vol. 32(3), pp. 307-327.

Brüggemann, M., Engesser, S. (2017): “Beyond false balance: How interpretive journalism shapes media coverage of climate change,” Global Environmental Change, Vol. 42, pp. 58-67.

Clark, M. D. (2020): “Drag them: A brief etymology of so-called “cancel culture,” Communication and the Public, Vol. 5(3-4), pp. 88-92.Cobbe, J. (2021): “Algorithmic Censorship by Social Platforms: Power and Resistance,” Philosophy & Technology, Vol. 34(4), pp. 739-766.

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. (2021): “Statement on Public Health Misinformation,” https://www.cpso.on.ca/News/Key-Updates/Key-Updates/COVID-misinformation. Accessed 22 January 2022.

Crain, W.M., Zardkoohi, A. (1978): “A Test of the Property Rights Theory of the Firm: Water Utilities in the United States,” Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 21(2), pp. 395-408.

Demsetz, H. (1988): “Why Regulate Utilities?,” Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 11, pp. 55-65.

Dilorenzo, T.J., High, J. (1988). “Antitrust and Competition, Historically Considered,” Economic Inquiry, Vol. 26, pp. 423-435.

Donders, K., Raats, T., Tintel, S. (2020): “(Re)defining public service media from an economic perspective: Damned if they do, damned if they don’t,” in M. Bjørn Rimscha (ed.), Management and Economics of Communication, pp. 203-222, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.

Drees, J. (2021): “Physicians who post COVID-19 vaccine misinformation may lose license, medical panel says,” August 5, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/digital-marketing/physicians-who-post-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-may-lose-license-medical-panel-says.html.

Dyke, J., Block, W. E.: “I Am Here Now’ and Our Claim to Self-Ownership,” Unpublished Working Paper.

Ebeling, R. (2016): Austrian Economics and Public Policy: Restoring Freedom and Prosperity. The Future of Freedom Foundation, Kindle Edition, https://www.amazon.com/Austrian-Economics-Public-Policy-Prosperity-ebook/dp/B01L8I3V80.

Griffin, A. (2022): “Telegram could be shut down in Germany, government warns. Independent,” https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/telegram-germany-shutdown-ban-far-right-b1991523.html.

Haskell, S. (2021): “Cancel Culture: A Qualitative Analysis of the Social Media Practice of Canceling,” https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2984&context=td.

Hayek, F. A. (1945): “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review, Vol. 35(4), pp. 519-530.

High, J. (1984-1985). “Bork’s Paradox: Static vs Dynamic Efficiency in Antitrust Analysis,” Contemporary Policy Issues, Vol. 3, pp. 21-34.

Holznagel, B. (2000): “The mission of public service broadcasters,” International Journal of Communications Law and Policy, Vol. 5, pp. 1-5.

Hoppe, H. H. (1989a): A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism. Boston/Dordrecht/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

- (1989b): “In Defense of Extreme Rationalism: Thoughts on Donald McClosky’s «The Rhetoric of Economics»,” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 179-214.

- (1992): “On Praxeology and the Praxeological Foundation of Epistemology and Ethics,” in Herbener, J. (ed.), The Meaning of Ludwig von Mises, Boston: Dordrecht.

- (1995): Economic Science and the Austrian Method. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

- (2006): The economics and ethics of private property: Studies in political economy and philosophy. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

- (2011): “How Mises Rebuilt Economics,” December 22, http://mises.org/daily/5740/How-Mises-Rebuilt-Economics.

Hülsmann, J. G. (1999): “Economic Science and Neoclassicism,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Vol. 2(4), pp. 1-20.

Jay, T. B. (2017): We did what?! Offensive and inappropriate behavior in American history. Greenwood.

Kant, I. (1781): Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Riga: Hartknoch.

Koehler, D.J. (2016): “Can Journalistic ‘False Balance’ Distort Public Perception of Consensus in Expert Opinion?,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 22(1), pp. 24-38.

Królikowski, A., Loebel, J.M. (2017): “Fake-News – Können Alogrithmen Menschen manipulieren?,“ Informatik_Spektrum, Vol. 40(4), pp. 367-370.

Kuhn, T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Lindenberg, S. (1985): “An Assessment of the New Political Economy: Its Potential for the Social Sciences and for Sociology in Particular,” Sociological Theory, Vol. 3(1), pp. 99-114.

Locke, J. (1801): The works of John Locke. Of Civil Government (10th ed., vol. 5.). London: J. Johnson.

Lowe-Calverley, E., & Grieve, R. (2018): “Thumbs up: A thematic analysis of image based posting and liking behavior on social media,” Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 35, pp. 1900-1913.

Macintosh, D. (2007): “Who Owns Me: Me or My Mother? How to Escape Okin’s Problem for Nozick’s and Narveson’s Theory of Entitlement,” in Malcolm Murray (ed), Liberty, Games and Contracts: Narveson and the Defence of Libertarianism, pp. 157-172, Chap. 11. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing.

McChesney, F. (1991): “Antitrust and Regulation: Chicago’s Contradictory Views,” Cato Journal, Vol. 10, pp. 775-798.

McGee, J.S. (1958): “Predatory Price Cutting: The Standard Oil (New Jersey) Case,” Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 1, pp. 137-169.

Merton, R.K. (1968): “The Matthew Effect in Science,” Science, Vol. 159, pp. 56-63.

Mill, J. S. (2001 [1871]): Utilitarianism. Waiheke Island: Floating Press.

Mises, L. von (1944): “The Treatment of “Irrationality” in the Social Sciences,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 4(4), pp. 527-546.

- (1969). Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.

- (1998 [1949]): Human Action, The Scholar’s Edition, Auburn, AL.: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Ng, E. (2020): “No grand pronouncements here...: Reflections on cancel culture and digital media participation”, Television & New Media, Vo. 20(6), pp. 621-627.

Nguyen, B. (2020): “Cancel Culture on Twitter: The Effects of Information Source and Messaging on Post Shareability and Perceptions of Corporate Greenwashing,” https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1200&context=wharton_research_scholars.

Norris P. (2021): “Cancel Culture: Myth or Reality?,” Political Studies, doi:10.1177/00323217211037023.

Opp, K.-D. (1985): “Sociology and Economic Man,” Zeitschrift Für Die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft/Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, Vol. 141(2), pp. 213-243.

Palmer, K. E. (2020): “#Kancelkulture: An Analysis of Cancel Culture and Social Media Activism Through the Lens of Minority College Students”, https://openworks.wooster.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=11563&context=independentstudy

Papacharissi, Z. (2015): “Affective publics and structure of storytelling: Sentiment, events and mediality,” Information, Communication and Society, Vol. 19(3), pp. 307-324.

Primeaux, W.J., JR. (1975): “A Reexamination of the Monopoly Market Structure for Electric Utilities,” in A. Phillips (ed), Promoting Competition in Regulated Markets. Brookings Institution.

- (1978): “The Effect of Competition on Capacity Utilization in the Electric Utility Industry,” Economic Inquiry, Vol. 16(2), pp. 137-248.

- (1985): “Total Deregulation of Electrical Utilities: A Viable Policy Choice.” In R.W Poole (ed.), Unnatural Monopolies. Lexington Books.

- (1986): “Direct Electric Utility Competition: The Natural Monopoly Myth.” New York: Praeger.

Revers, M., Traunmüller, R. (2020): “Is Free Speech in Danger on University Campus? Some Preliminary Evidence from a Most Likely Case,” Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Vol. 72(3), pp. 471-497.

Rizzo, M. (1979): “Praxeology and Econometrics: A Critique of Positivist Economics,” in Louis Spadaro (ed.), New Directions in Austrian Economics, pp. 40-56. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel.

Rothbard, M. N. (1951): “Praxeology: Reply to Mr. Schuller,” American Economic Review, Vol. 41(5), 943-946.

- (1957): “In Defense of Extreme Apriorism,” Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 23(1), pp. 314-320.

- (1976): “Praxeology: The Methodology of Austrian Economics,” in Edwin G. Dolan (ed.), The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics, pp. 19-39 Kansas City: Sheed and Ward.

- (1982): “Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution”. Cato Journal, Vol. 2(1), reprinted in W.E. Block, (ed.), Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation, pp. 233-279, Vancouver: The Fraser Institute.

- (1997): “Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics,” in The Logic of Action One, pp. 211-254, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

- (1997a): “Praxeology as the Method of the Social Sciences.” In The Logic of Action One, pp. 28-57, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

- (1997b): “Praxeology: The Methodology of Austrian Economics.” In The Logic of Action One, pp. 58-77, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

- (1997c): “Praxeology, Value Judgments, and Public Policy.” In The Logic of Action One, pp. 78-99, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

- (1997d): “In Defense of ‘Extreme Apriorism’,”. Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 23, pp. 314-320.

- (1998 [1982]): The Ethics of Liberty, New York: New York University Press.

- (2006 [1973]): For a New Liberty, 2nd ed. Auburn, AL.: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

- (2009): Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles. 2nd Scholar’s Edition, Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Saint-Louis, H. (2021): “Understanding cancel culture: Normative and unequal sanctioning,” First Monday, 26(7). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i7.10891.

Schultz, T. (2021): “Moralisierung und Meinungsfreiheit. Gefährdet eine „Cancel Culture den Journalismus? Analytische Annäherung an eine heikle Frage,” UFITA – Archiv für Medienrecht und Medienwissenschaft, Vol. 85(1), 6-37.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1942): Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper.

Selgin, G. A. (1988): “Praxeology and Understanding: An Analysis of the Controversy in Austrian Economics,” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 2, pp. 19-58.

Sellars, W. (1953): “Is There a Synthetic a Priori?,” Philosophy of Science, Vol. 20(2), pp. 121-138.

Spence, M., OWEN, B. (1977): “Television programming, monopolistic competition and welfare,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 91(1), pp. 103-126.

Steiner, H. (1994a): An Essay on Rights. Oxford: Blackwell.

- (1994b): “The Fruits of Body-Builders’ Labour,” In A. Dyson and J. Harris (eds.), Ethics and Biotechnology, pp. 64-78. London: Routledge.

- (2008): “Debate: Universal Self-ownership and the Fruits of One’s Labour: A Reply to Curchin”, Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 16(3), pp. 350-355.

- (1952): “Program patterns and preferences and the workability of competition in radio broadcasting,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 66(2), pp. 194-223.

Sztompka, P. (2007): “Trust in Science,” Journal of Classical Sociology, Vol. 7, pp. 211-220.

Tversky, A., Kahneman, D. (1974): “Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases,” Science, Vol. 185(4157), pp. 1124-1131.

Vallentyne, P. (2000): “Introduction: Left-Libertarianism – A Primer,” in P. Vallentyne and H. Steiner (eds.), Left-Libertarianism and Its Critics: The Contemporary Debate, pp. 1-20. Hampshire, UK and New York, NY: Palgrave.

- (2002): “Equality and the Duties of Procreators.” In David Archard and Colin Macleod (eds.), The Moral and Political Status of Children, 195-211, Chap. 11. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vallentyne, P., Steiner, H., Otsuka, M. (2005): “Why Left-Libertarianism Is Not Incoherent, Indeterminate, or Irrelevant: A Reply to Fried,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 33, pp. 201-215.

Velasco, J. C. (2020): “You are Cancelled: Virtual Collective Consciousness and the Emergence of Cancel Culture as Ideological Purging,” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol. 12(5), pp. 1-7.

Wittgenstein, L. (1953): Philosophical Investigations, (Anscombe, G. E. M. trans.), Oxford: Blackwell.

Yar, S., Bromwich, J. E. (2019): “Tales From the teenage cancel culture,” The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/style/cancel-culture.html.

Young, A. T. (2015): “Argumentation Ethics and the Question of Self Ownership,” Journal of Private Enterprise, Vol. 30(3), pp. 79-88.

Downloads

Published

2023-07-25

Issue

Section

Notes

How to Cite

Uprise of the Shrinking Violets: Cancel Culture in Media. (2023). REVISTA PROCESOS DE MERCADO, 20(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.52195/pm.v20i1.858