We are only five days into 2021 and the news cycle has already reached a certain level of repeatability: After a man loosely associated with beans actively chose to spit out absolute trash on Twitter for no discernible reason, another Mr. Bean – actor Rowan Atkinson – proved that he could also avoid silence against his best judgment. In an interview with the UK outlet Radio Times (as reported by Variety), Atkinson transformed what could have been a very productive conversation about toxic pockets of online culture into more commentary on the famous “cancellation culture”: “The problem we have online is that an algorithm decides what we want to see, which ends up creating a simplistic and binary view of society. It becomes a case of you being with us or against us. And if you are against us, you deserve to be ‘canceled’ ”.
He continues: “It is important that we are exposed to a wide range of opinions, but what we have now is the digital equivalent of the medieval crowd roaming the streets in search of someone to burn. So it is scary for anyone who is a victim of this crowd and it fears me about the future. “
Atkinson, to his credit, cites no specific example of this recent “mafia” behavior. (Tthrough the endless transphobic saga of J.K. Rowling it is certainly the easiest to access here.) seven he joins a chorus of privileged public figures who felt the need to speak out against this slandered “cancel culture”– which tends to really consist of marginalized communities speaking out against sustained systemic abuse while having your words mischaracterized as a “witch hunt”, feared “Cancellation”, or any defamatory label for detractors think to distract from the central issues in question. In July, Harper’s Magazine published an open letter entitled “A Letter on Justice and Open debate, ” who stated that “the free exchange of information and ideas” was being categorically threatened by public shame. that was signed by 153 great figures from the media and academia, Including Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem and, unsurprisingly, Rowling.
Atkinson’s questionable take, unfortunately, ended up overshadowing a genuinely interesting view of his long career, including his discontent in playing Mr. Bean (“I don’t really like to play it. The burden of responsibility is not pleasant. I find it stressful and exhausting, and I’m looking forward to the end of it”). Ironically, he also suggested developing a future Animated film by Mr. Bean, explaining that interpreting the character from a vocal point of view is much easier than interpreting him physically.