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Comment by salt-thrower | Hacker News Reader

It seems odd to complain about cancel culture and then make a stunt out of self-censorship. You achieve the same result as the vocal minority who would want to ban you, but now you can claim it was your own doing, so… success?

It’s hard to imagine being in that situation, but I think the better move would be to show up anyway and call their bluff.

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Cleese was acting in solidarity with someone who did something (at least apparently) similar to what he has done in the past but was actually cancelled for it (because a lot of people here don't seem to think it happens).

By not appearing, he's made international headlines, which is the point. If he were to have appeared, probably nothing would have happened.

As a result, the student's union has changed their tune a bit, so at least he's had some impact.

The broader point Cleese is making is that he's been poking people in the eye for generations, but now there's a 'new establishment' keen to try to deride him and his peers and that he's taking the same position now, as he would have 30 years ago.

There's a famous debate between him and a very conservative intellectual regarding the 'Life of Brian' and it's religious implications, I'm looking forward to that debate in 2020.

The term 'woke' is a bit needlessly incendiary, but it's fully within his perogative.

Cleese is on the right side of history.

Blacklisting himself is a silly and comic thing to do that has now drawn huge attention to the controversy. Depriving The Cambridge Union of his appearance is a much bigger penalty for them than it is for him. He is also suggesting people who agree with his opposition to cancel culture could set up an alternate venue where as he says, woke rules would not apply.

Cleese is playing a third-order game here, most people wouldn't even be able to appreciate a second-order game.

No more odd than, say, the Ministry of Silly Walks or what have you.

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