Cancel Culture as an Instrument of Elites’ Political Struggle: The Case of the USA

Cancel culture is an Internet term of the beginning of the 21st century, which implies the prevention of public communication and public censure of a person who has committed an immoral act in a modern network society. The research methodology involves descriptive, comparative-historical methods. The purpose of the article is to define the concept of cancel culture, to consider its main characteristics and specific examples. Due to changes in modern society, cancel culture has become an important accelerator of many destructive processes. Cancel culture is superimposed on the phenomenon of “cultural wars” that destroys the identity of the United States. The polarization of society on ethical issues and the possibility of automatically discrediting one’s political opponents have created a constantly developing destructive mechanism in society. Within the framework of the network society, the cancel culture actualizes the old institutional contradictions of the United States. Elites use cancel culture to advance a right or left agenda in historical memory. But the polarization of society intensifies the existential crisis, which leads to the collapse of basic institutions. In addition, cancel culture began to manifest itself in both foreign and domestic US policy.

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