Cancel Culture can come for anyone, at any time. Whether it’s me, school parents in Virginia, protesting truckers, or media personalities, it will eventually come after everyone who does not believe in the ideology of the Left. They will continue to attack all of us if we don’t stop it. Even those with large and loyal audiences are not immune – Joe Rogan can attest to that.
When it comes for you, there are a number of things you can do – and some that you should definitely avoid doing – to protect yourself before it destroys you personally or professionally.
When the Cancel Culture mob came after me, I was caught completely off guard. I listened to the advice of the people around me – people who I thought had my best interests, or at least the best interests of my company, at heart. I received a lot of bad advice from people who either didn’t know what they were talking about or who really had no interest in my survival. As I mentioned during a panel discussion about cancel culture at CPAC, I was a perfect target, because I was behind enemy lines and didn’t know it.
Being one of the early targets of Cancel Culture, there are things that I wish I had done differently, and things that I’ve learned over the past few years that I wish I had known from the start.
If I could go back in time and give myself advice about how best to respond to Cancel Culture, this would be it:
1. DON’T: APOLOGIZE
Apologizing is a trap. Papa John’s issued an apology attributed to me afterForbesran a hit piece about me using a leaked, deceptively edited transcript from a private media coaching session with me. I knew that I had nothing to apologize for, but corporate media personnel issued the statement, claiming the whole thing would blow over following an apology. Instead, the exact opposite happened. As soon as the statement was issued, the Cancel Culture mob, including the company I founded, took it as an admission of guilt and doubled down on their crusade to hurt me.
2. DO: PROMOTE THE FACTS
Simply denying a false narrative can give credence to the lies being told about you. I knew all along that my words were being twisted in the media, and thanks to the lawsuit I filed against the ad agency that stabbed me in the back, I’m proving it.
3. DO: ACT QUICKLY AND AGGRESSIVELY TO COUNTER THE NARRATIVE
It doesn’t take long for the media to adopt its preferred narrative. Once that happens, it’s almost impossible to change the conversation, even when that underlying narrative is completely dishonest. Every time you see that false narrative repeated, you need to push back immediately. Contact reporters to demand a correction. If that doesn’t work, contact their editors. Use every tool at your disposal, including social media, to promote the truth.
4. DO: RECRUIT THIRD-PARTY ADVOCATES
Cancel Culture operates the way wolves do when they hunt. Wolves hunt as a pack, and they seek out vulnerable and isolated targets. The intolerant Left overwhelms their prey with left-leaning big tech, academia, and mainstream media. If Cancel Culture comes after you, you don’t stand a chance of surviving alone. You need help. The best people to ask are usually friends and colleagues – people who can convincingly speak the truth about you. It took me years to finally ask my friends and associates to goon the recordin defense of my character, and I wish I had done that right away.
5. DO: USE THE MEDIA TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
There’s always a political element to Cancel Culture, especially if you have notoriety or influence. The exploitation of tribalism is part of what makes Cancel Culture so effective – if people think you have a different political perspective, they’re less likely to view you as a person, and more likely to view you as just another opportunity to score political points. The flip side of that, however, is that there will also be reporters who are predisposed to sympathize with you. But they can’t do anything for you unless you tell them the truth of your story. A key part of telling that truth is having good PR representation. I learned the hard way that knowing when to jettison a bad PR team is just as important as having a good one.
6. DON’T: BE DISCOURAGED BY SOCIAL MEDIA CENSORSHIP
Social media can be an extremely helpful tool. Before Cancel Culture came after me, I had virtually no social media footprint, but I’ve found a lot of support on social media since then. Unfortunately, victims of Cancel Culture often find themselves silenced by Big Tech and dominant social media platforms. Fortunately, there are vibrant and growing alternatives available that consider online freedom of speech a core principle. You should establish a presence on them now, so that you have those resources at your disposal right away if you ever need them.
7. DON’T: LET CANCELLATION DEFINE YOU OR DEFEAT YOU
The goal of Cancel Culture is to destroy its targets. Cancel Culture wants to get you fired, wreck your marriage, convince your friends to turn their backs on you, get you audited and investigated – anything to shut you up and punish you for whatever you did that disagrees with their ideology. They might succeed at some or all of those things, but they haven’t really beaten you until they’ve broken your spirit. Remember that you’re not alone. If there was a support group for targets of Cancel Culture, we would likely fill the Rose Bowl with our first meeting. Anyone who has been through the Cancel Culture wringer knows what it’s like and will probably be more than happy to help you out. The key is to never stop believing in yourself. Own your mistakes but remember that you’re worth more than your worst moments.
Cancel Culture may come for you but believe me when I tell you there is a path forward and many ways to counter and cancel Cancel Culture.
Papa John Schnatter is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Papa John’s International (PZZA).