Nick Cave: ‘Cancel culture is bad religion run amuck’

Australian rock musician Nick Cave has hit out at ‘cancel culture’, branding it “bad religion run amuck”.

In a blog post on his website, Cave said “political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world.”

The musician made the comments in response to a fan who asked: “What do you make of cancel culture?”

Mercy

In his response, Cave championed the importance of mercy in current discourse, saying “Mercy is a value that should be at the heart of any functioning and tolerant society.”

“If mercy is our guide we have a safety net of mutual consideration, and we can, to quote Oscar Wilde, ‘play gracefully with ideas.'”

The Australian explained that tolerance of those with differing opinions allows people to explore ideas, make mistakes and to think boldly, but that without this “society grows inflexible, fearful, vindictive and humourless”.

‘Cancelled’

Cancel culture has been on the rise in recent years, especially by some who promote radical gender ideology.

In 2015, a petition was launched against prominent feminist writer Germaine Greer giving a lecture at Cardiff University after she said that men could not become women.

In 2019, Professor Michele Moore was due to speak at Edinburgh University, before her concerns about autistic children being caught up in transgenderism led to the Staff Pride Network labelling her “transphobic”.

The event was cancelled after organisers were reportedly told that the safety of their speakers – most of whom were women – could not be guaranteed.