Over the Borderline

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Much ink has been spilt in recent years over this or that writer or entertainer getting ‘cancelled’ or otherwise shuffled off. Actress Gina Carano is the latest high-profile case, but there are probably thousands in the same boat, many of them ordinary members of the public.

Behind the cancellations is something more concerning, at least to me. I’ve taken to calling it ‘The Silo Effect’. Both social media (by dint of algorithms) and now conventional media (by dint of deliberate hiring and firing) are herding their viewers and readers into ideological silos. Once there, they’re unlikely to encounter anything other than comfort food with which they already agree.