"Cancel culture” is a phenomenon with almost no defenders. Instead there are people who lament and assail it, and people who deny it exists. It "isn’t real,” it’s "a patchwork monster invented to scare children,” it’s "a spooky campfire story.”

In case you missed the point, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow put it in capital letters: "Once more: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CANCEL CULTURE.” His work of persuasion not quite done, he offered an alternative explanation: "The rich and powerful are just upset that the masses can now organize their dissent.”

What this school of thought has going for it is the fuzziness of the concept of "cancel culture.” The same was true of its predecessor "political correctness,” which was also denied to exist rather than defended. The line between criticism and intolerance, like the line between sensitivity and oversensitivity, is subjective.