Someone once told me in defense of cancel culture “oh, but wouldn’t someone get canceled for doing the Hitler sign?”.
That is not the same thing.
There’s a difference between having a small set of things that one can get canceled for, and making it the norm of practically everything.
Also, there are many ways to “cancel” someone, some which are reasonable, and some which are not. For example, privately withdrawing financial support from a company is different from advocating that they must be shut down corporately by society at large.
There also a difference in how much one views the context of an action and lets it affect one’s decision. Cancel culture doesn’t seem to care about context at all, but rather seeks to limit it by any means necessary.
These are three important distinctions in my view, that could be called the difference between disassociation and cancellation, and that one doesn’t justify the other.
The Searcher Who Wants to Give 