Book Review: “Canceling Comedians While the World Burns”

“Now, in what is sure to be a more controversial move, Burgis is turning his analytical skills towards criticizing the political left.”

Introduction

My friend and occasional co-author Ben Burgis, a professor of philosophy specializing in logic at Georgia State University, pulled off a very rare feat a few years ago: writing a book on logic and argumentation that actually proved widely popular. His bestseller Give Them An Argument: Logic for The Left was a funny and informative look at some of the (mis)uses of logical rhetoric from the “facts don’t care about your feelings” crowd. It showed that—while figures such as Dave Rubin and Ben Shapiro may enjoy referring to the words reason and logic like tantric mantras—the actual rigor of their thinking is questionable at best. Just saying that one is a paragon of clear thinking does not make it so. Burgis’ own argument was helped mightily by the unpretentious and funny delivery of complicated points—something that has helped him to build a considerable following online.

Now, in what is sure to be a more controversial move, Burgis is turning his analytical skills towards criticizing the political left. His forthcoming book Canceling Comedians While the World Burns (available here) is a tough love letter to the political left, arguing that it has become fixated on the wrong ambitions. While autocratic politicians like President Donald Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán grab power and use every trick in the book to hold onto it (including undermining democracy), too many of us progressives get bogged down in culture war battles about canceling offensive comedians (and even leftist icons), who do not sufficiently toe the line of propriety. While Canceling Comedians does not have all of the answers, it is an enjoyable and very lucid book whose arguments become more convincing the deeper one gets into it.

The Problems With Cancel Culture

Burgis points out that there are a variety of ways progressives respond to accusations that they support “cancel culture.” Each is dealt with at length in the book. One of the most common responses is to deny that there is such a thing as cancel culture; to this point, many on the Left point out that many of the allegedly “canceled” martyrs are actually still very much active and getting their opinions across. And there is something to this, of course; as Nathan Robinson points out, many of the loudest men in the world love to posture as the victims of cancelation (ironic given many of them also denounce victim culture etc). Another common argument is that even if cancel culture exists, it is not nearly as ubiquitous or as serious of a problem as people make it out to be. Contra the rhetoric of gulags and mass firings, what counts as “cancelation” is often little more than getting some stern and angry comments online or facing boycotts by consumers. This may or may not be justified depending on the case, but it is not exactly tantamount to being hauled to a show trial. One of the less effective arguments I sometimes see is the cheesy “well the other side does it also,” where proponents of this view point to things like James Gunn’s (short-term) firing from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after conservative partisans dug up nasty tweets of his. Whether true or not, this whataboutism is not really all that persuasive, given that “they did it too” is not an argument for anything. Finally, there are those who say by even talking about cancel culture critically, progressives play into the hands of their adversaries by vindicating a nasty stereotype that is better off ignored or dismissed, rather than discussed.