Does our culture need a Woke Index?

If we're going to police books and art, maybe we should do it right

A scale.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Is anyone actually in favor of "cancel culture?"

Nearly the entire conversation about the topic operates at least one level of meta away from the phenomenon itself. An institution somewhere fires an employee, or changes the name of a building, or stops selling a book, and the outrage fest is on. Is such and such an instance of "cancel culture"? If it is, should we be worried? Did this particular person or work deserve to be "canceled?" What can we do about it anyway?

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.