Went down the rabbit whole a bit more - the term "cancel" in this context seems to have originated with a #CancelColbert hashtag when someone didn't understand his schtick when he said something satirically racist, and then black posters on twitter made it a bigger thing when responding to racism in culture - though half of the time they were just joking, and then Me Too and all of the sexual misconduct stuff broke all kind of at once and there was a societal and entertainment-industry effort to erase those offenders, and THEN the far right commandeered the term to support the Trump anti-politically correct rhetoric - where the left is coming to destroy us all for nothing and all that.
This Washington Post article headline sums up my confusion pretty well (behind a paywall so I didn't read the article):
"The strange journey of 'cancel,' from a Black-culture punchline to a White-grievance watchword".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...479_story.html
I guess I just didn't keep up with that last part (or at least how that last part nullified all previous uses of the term). Well I'm taking the word back, damn it, for Me Too and black twitter!!!