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Ancient and modern

Tacitus and the hypocrisy of cancel culture

3 July 2021

9:00 AM

3 July 2021

9:00 AM

The delicious hypocrisy at the heart of today’s cancel fraternity is that it is strongly opposed to censorship. Romans grappled with the issue; the historian Tacitus nailed it.

Since the Roman republic sprang from the expulsion of a tyrant-king (509 bc), anti-monarchic views became standard fare in legal and political debate whenever anyone suspected tyranny.

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