What it feels like to be CANCELLED: It's the mob's weapon of choice - trying to take away their victim's livelihood

Daily Mail

The Chinese used to have a brutal remedy for those who transgressed the teachings of Chairman Mao. The rebels were dragged to so-called 'struggle sessions' where they were subjected to vicious abuse from an audience of true believers. Offenders who failed to give grovelling apologies for their misguided views were, at the very least, shunned by society. In other words, 'cancelled'. 

Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, who receives daily requests from people who have been – or fear they will be – 'cancelled', compares the prevailing atmosphere to some of history's darkest episodes. 'What's disturbing about cancel culture is that we've seen it so many times before – in 17th Century Salem, in Paris after the French Revolution, in America during the McCarthy era, in China in the 1960s,' he said. 'It's as if a group of people are re-enacting some of the worst moments in human history, but because they're not actually killing anyone they think it's okay.'