The surf | Press

I asked my boyfriend, who was going to sniff vinyls in record stores in eternal nostalgia that he is, to buy me in passing The offending book by Guy Nantel.

“It doesn’t tempt me to look like the guy who buys Guy Nantel’s book.

– So you’re a snob. What is the most inconvenient? Buy Guy Nantel’s book or my sanitary towels?

– Buy the Bible. I did this once, and I was more ashamed than buying a Playboy. ”

He came back empty-handed, because the book, in the top 20 of the Renaud-Bray prize list, was nowhere to be found. I suspected he hadn’t even tried to buy it, but checking its web availability I saw it was being reprinted. I still found a copy and I had the feeling that I was reading a rehash, Nantel version, of the themes of The racialist revolution by Mathieu Bock-Côté, who became a star of the CNews channel in France, while keeping his stands in Quebec.

This popular Offensive book doesn’t seem to offend many, and he arrived shortly before the launch of a new tour of shows for Nantel, who accompanied his essay with a series of rather painful to watch web interviews, where he had already the answers to the questions he asked his guests. After his race for the leadership of the PQ, Guy Nantel appears in a new campaign combining his profession as a comedian with a form of anti-activism.woke become rather fashionable. I think he’s going to sell a lot of tickets.

After several media frenzies concerning denunciations and heated debates on the “culture of cancellation”, the subject continued to generate ink and saliva in 2021. In short, “cancel culture” and “wokes” Are still on the agenda. In addition to Nantel’s book, there were the books Canceled by Judith Lussier, Who will live by the like will perish by the like by Simon Jodoin and the documentary People’s court by Geneviève Pettersen on the Vrai platform.

Are we taking a step back from the phenomenon, or are we in response? It is clear that the backlash has arrived – in English, you could say backlash, which recalls the famous essay by Susan Faludi in 1991, where she explained that each advance of women is followed by a reactionary retreat. In fact, in the United States, after #metoo, the right to abortion has never been so threatened in 50 years.

In showbiz, except for those who have committed serious assaults, we see the return of those who were canceled or those who were close to being canceled. Maripier Morin has just launched a personal project, Alex Nevsky offers new songs after reconciling with his ex-girlfriend, Mike Ward won in Supreme Court, Dave Chappelle returned to Netflix and Morgan Wallen sells more records than ever after his scandal of racial insults.

During this time, voices are silent, exhausted by attacks which certainly do not come from the militancy of the left. In the spring, in an article in Duty, we interviewed personalities who have chosen to flee the violence of social networks, such as Dany Turcotte, Safia Nolin, Olivier Bernard, Carla Beauvais or Manal Drissi.

Should we be talking about a culture of harassment, which is rife on all sides, as much as a culture of cancellation?

There is an elephant in the room that we shouldn’t forget. The most important canceled personality of 2021 is Donald Trump, when he was banned from social media after the assault on Capitol Hill. It must nevertheless be remembered that armed groups wanted to attack democracy and overthrow an elected government, while commentators constantly tap on the dangers of movements like Black Lives Matter.

This highly symbolic gesture was not followed enough by a deep analysis of what it implies and looks like a diversion. What is the responsibility of social networks in this toxic climate? But also, can those companies that handle the communications of billions of people ban people or groups? Shouldn’t we be worried about the immense power they hold over public dialogue when they can expel an American president, however dangerous he may be?

Donald Trump is preparing his revenge by creating his own social network, for which he has already raised a billion in funding. His supporters have not disappeared with his digital exile, and the next US election campaign is predicted to be about “wokism” and the culture of banishment.

In the United States, more than half of the states are said to consider banning the teaching of critical race theory that supports the idea of ​​systemic racism. Banning concepts, ideas, books or words is a funny way to protect freedom of expression, right? Looks like Republicans have learned some tricks from their most radical ideological opponents.

In Quebec, where we are often told that all these dangerous ideas come from the United States, we seem tempted to follow suit with those American states which want to tighten the screws on progressive militants who are too extremist for their tastes.

The CAQ government has set up an independent commission on the recognition of university freedom. In October, the Quebec and French Ministers of Education, Jean-François Roberge and Jean-Michel Blanquer, united in a joint letter to denounce “the excesses of the culture of cancellation”, the “assassins of the memory ”and more generally“ a movement which constitutes a fertile ground for all the extremes which threaten the cohesion of our societies ”. I hope they were thinking a bit about it on the far right, when Eric Zemmour has just launched into the race for the French presidency and we have seen people fighting in his rally.

I am not an activist, I never have been. But it is easy to observe that left-wing militancy is being transformed into a scarecrow in a pre-electoral context in the United States, France and Quebec. And it is worrying to see that in our societies in crisis with the pandemic and global warming, minds are diverted towards the very vague threat of “wokism” into which we throw haphazardly extremists and people truly committed to a world better.

It is perhaps the recent death of the writer Marie-Claire Blais, who sincerely believed that the human being was moving forward despite everything, which prevents me from being pessimistic about the future. Despite all the blunders and slippages, important discussions took place on violence against women, racism and living together, which have irreparably transformed us.

Even if the time is right for the surf.