Making Sense of Cancel Culture and Moral Entrepreneurship outside of Western Context

This presentation views the linguistic construction of novaya etika as a sensemaking attempt intended to rationalize the Western phenomenon of cancel culture. This attempt interprets moral conflict between liberals and conservatives in Western countries as a confrontation of opposing moral orders between the Western new ideology and Russia’s traditional values. The presentation features three cases illustrating the adaptation of cancellation practices in the Russian context. Key findings and implications are discussed in comparison to well-known cases in other post-Soviet countries. Lately, cancel culture has become another deeply contested idea in the nation’s political discourse. There are plenty of debates over what it is and what it means, including whether it’s a way to hold people accountable, or a tactic to punish others unjustly, or a mix of both. According to the 2021 Pew Research Center survey, conservative Republicans were more likely than other partisan and ideological groups to see cancel culture as a form of censorship. They are more likely than other partisan and ideological groups to define cancel culture as a way for people to cancel anyone they disagree with or as an attack on traditional American society. In Russia, the term novaya etika (the new ethics) is often used to explain the term “cancel culture.” It is often explained as a domestic reaction to multiple conversations, taking place in comments on English-language media sites and public pages and centered around by relevant topics in Western countries related to sexual harassment, the commercialization of romantic relationships, culture wars within and with LGBT and feminist communities, many others. However, these debates are self-standing, not related, and usually not interpreted as part of the same phenomenon. In Russia, the concept of novaya etika has been imagined by intellectuals to address their phobia linked to the lack of new ideas about their future and misunderstanding of a new wave of Russian feminism. Ironically, these sentiments coincided with the far-right agenda and the anti-Western state ideology and propaganda. In Russia, moral entrepreneurship is outsourced to multiple groups including the patriotic youth, veterans, retirees, conservative activists, nationalist political groups. Peer pressure is often used as a means of coercing compliance through public exposure of government critics. Moral entrepreneurs often seek ways to put pressure on dissenting voices both online and offline by accusing them of wrong political orientation or lack of patriotism. In neoliberal democracies, the imposition of moral standards can be outsourced to multiple moral vigilante and “rule enforcers” (Becker, 1963). These moral entrepreneurs take the lead in labeling a divergent behavior as a moral threat and subsequently shaming an individual or a group associated with this behavior. They seek to place the activities of a particular group on the public's agenda and label certain actions as social problems (Schneider & Ingram, 2005). As suggested by Norris (2021), the climate of public opinion in developing societies remains more traditional on moral issues concerning religion, roles for women and men, as well as gender and sexual identities. Hence, in these societies, individuals holding liberal moral views, are likely to feel pressures to conform with the predominant conservative social norms and moral values. Consequently, due to social pressures, these dissenting minority voices often engage in self-censorship and become muted. Thus, individuals express minimal concern about cancel culture if their values are in line with the dominant cultural values in their community.