When Mass Outrage is Cheap: TC Origins of Cancel Culture

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We trace a straight line from a 1697 blasphemy execution to modern cancel culture by focusing on one variable: the cost of turning speech into coordinated punishment. We break down how social media creates common knowledge at near-zero cost, making outrage faster, bigger, and harder to control. 
• Thomas Aikenhead’s case as a story about information and enforcement costs 
• Transaction costs as the hidden limiter on persecution and social punishment 
• The First Amendment limiting state coercion while leaving private sanctions intact 
• Social media as a collapse in the cost of broadcasting accusations 
• Common knowledge as the trigger for coordinated action by strangers 
• Justine Sacco as the early template for modern cancellation dynamics 
• Brendan Eich, Emmanuel Cafferty, James Damore, and PyCon “donglegate” as repeating patterns 
• John Cleese on offense and the urge to control others’ behavior 
• Listener letters on healthcare markets, consolidation, and transaction costs 
• Certificate of need laws and price systems that shape competition

• Amy Poehler's super bowl ad (Dongle!):
• John Cleese on cancel culture

Letters:

• Dr. Anthony Digiorgio, UCSF, Graphic Novel Claim Denied, Off Label Ideas
• Surgery Center of Oklahoma

Book-o-da-week:

• Steven Pinker’s When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life  Scribner, 2025. 

If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at taitc.email@gmail.com !

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz