The saga of Dave Chappelle vs the mob is still ongoing but it’s hard to consider it a battle between a man and cancel culture in the truest sense, mostly because Chappelle isn’t fighting.
He’s already won.
One of the greatest weapons against cancel culture is very rarely utilized against it. It’s simple denial. Denial of capitulation, denial of narrative, denial of demands. Whatever it is, simply telling the mob “no” definitely results in a temper tantrum from them, but ultimately everyone is better for it.
Cancel culture is a choice, or rather a series of choices. The target may be fired by their company or a group may disown its member, but usually, cancelation happens on a personal level. A person is pressured into walking back something they said or did. They bow before the mob, say they’re sorry that they ever did such a thing, and obediently do whatever it takes to get back into the good graces of people who have no good graces. The worst of them become like SJWs themselves, parroting whatever talking point the mob has that day in order to stay out of trouble.
Chappelle decided very early on that the people who take part in cancel culture can kiss his ass and that no matter what happens, they continue to pucker up. He’s not budging on his position, he’s not giving up his beliefs, and he’s not going to be afraid.
This denial has made him popular and that popularity has made him powerful, and that power has influenced even the CEO of Netflix to hold firm against the mob as well. This includes refusing to pull his special and more.
(READ: Translating Netflix CEO’s Shooting Down of Every Demand LGBT Employees are Making)
The mob is now powerless. The trolls of Twitter (not a real place as Chappelle quipped), the LGBT activists, and the permanently enraged people of the social justice Olympics have no recourse but to stomp their feet and yell into the ether at a world that doesn’t care “muh oppression.”
A very important part of Chappelle’s non-cancellation is his refusal to accept the narrative the mob attempts to make for him.
In a recent interview with Variety, Chappelle made it clear that he’s not the enemy of the LGBT community, but he said what he said:
“It’s been said in the press that I was invited to speak to the transgender employees of Netflix and I refused. That is not true — if they had invited me I would have accepted it, although I am confused about what we would be speaking about,” Chappelle said in the video. “I said what I said, and boy, I heard what you said. My God, how could I not? You said you want a safe working environment at Netflix. It seems like I’m the only one that can’t go to the office anymore.”
…
“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it that it’s me versus that community, that is not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ [sic] community for any of this shit. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say,” Chappelle said. “For the record, and I need you to know this, everyone I know from that community has been loving and supporting, so I don’t know what all this nonsense is about.”
Chappelle isn’t being an antagonist, he’s not accepting the role of antagonist, and while he is making fun of people, he’s not doing it in such a way that it conveys malice or hatred. Chappelle is, in other words, simply being Chappelle the comedian and by refusing to cave he’s refusing to be anyone else but him. It’s not something he’s letting them take away from him.
So it’s over despite the fact that the hard-left community and its intersectional groups don’t want it to be. They have no power. There is nothing they can do. Chappelle has won.
For them, this is a nightmare…because who else will learn from Chappelle? Who else will refuse to be canceled?
Most importantly, who will learn that their power is an illusion?
