“It’s Good For My World View, Therefore It Must Be True.”

On social media, tribal epistemology, and cancel culture.

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

It has truly been a banner week for toxic internet culture. Just a few highlights:

• Tati Westbrook, YouTube beauty influencer, uploaded a video formally disassociating herself from James Charles, another YouTube beauty influencer. The video — pointing to warrantless allegations of predatory sexual behavior — caused millions of fans to “cancel” said Charles in an unprecedented social media fall out to the tune of losing 3 million subscribers. The video also lead to more warrantless allegations by random people online and plenty of your run-of-the-mill online harassment.
• Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation, leading to people opposed to the bill wishing rape on those that support it and people that support the bill calling those that don’t baby murderers.
• Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right grifter that has been banned from Twitter and Facebook, took to Gab to announce that he is the chosen one to help right-wingers gear up for the “inevitable” civil war.
• A QAnon conspiracy theory forced a charter school to cancel its fundraiser.
• A Missouri Congressman singlehandedly coined the term “consensual rape.” It…