One of the big challenges in any movement is whether to aim to be a broad or a narrow church. Should you form a tight bond with only those who perfectly agree with you, or link up with those who you share some overlap but far from perfect alignment? There is no universal answer to that question. Still, if the cause is important and you need many people’s help to achieve progress, it is hard to imagine that shunning potential allies is going to deliver the change that you want. This is a theme of Jenny Morgan’s Cancel Culture in Climate.
First, My Academic Side Comes Out
As an academic I often feel compelled to go off on tangents that aren’t ultimately critical because I have problems with a given definition. Today, it is about the term ‘cancel culture’. Popular terms often are very badly defined. Morgan tries to work on a definition and does make progress at clarifying what she sees as the difference between accountability and cancel culture. Still, the boundary seems pretty subjective.
Cancel culture is used but is applied to specific “cancellations”. Cancellations and cancel culture are surely different concepts. To note that even if we didn’t have a cancel culture it would surely still be possible to cancel someone.
Plus, what cancelling involves is a bit vague. Not following someone on social media doesn’t seem like a massive cancellation. Is losing a few followers evidence of being cancelled? Indeed, can you be cancelled without knowing it? How serious does something have to be to count as cancelled.
Furthermore, who determines whether a cancellation has happened? I constantly see people complaining very loudly, and critically in public, that they have been cancelled. This seems to undermine their point that people don’t listen to them anymore.
A Broad Or A Narrow Church
Morgan’s core point is that you need to work with people who don’t behave as you want them to in order to encourage them to behave different.
…we must partner with polluters if we are to reduce pollution.
Morgan (2025) page 103
In a similar spirit to people robbing banks because that’s where the money is, we need to talk to those doing bad stuff if we want to encourage them to stop doing the bad stuff.
This implies an answer to the question of whether you want a broad or a narrow church. You want everyone in the church so those that need to listen can hear the sermon and take it on board.
Greenhushing and Greenrecanting
Morgan also discusses the problem of Greenhushing, which is where companies do environmental responsible things but don’t talk about it.
“Greenhushing” may not be as widely recognized a term as “greenwashing,” but I would argue it is equally (if not more) devasting.
Morgan (2025) page 67
Why is this a problem? When firms don’t share their successes, other firms think progress is impossible, when it isn’t. Social proof helps get results, and hiding successes stops others from copying you.
But why wouldn’t a firm share good news? One reason is that they know they are perfect and don’t want to set themseleves up as a target for those keen to take down ‘hypocrites’. Another reason is related to Morgan’s concern with the current phenomenon of greenrecanting. Going back on environmental targets partially seems to be occurring to avoid the wraith of the anti-woke brigades.
In general, a firm doing good things in darkness is better than nothing but better still is standing up and explaining that the firm is taking actions to make the world a better place.
What Are You Trying To Achieve?
A critical point from Morgan’s book is that we need to think about what we are trying to achieve. “Cancelling” someone might feel good but what does it achieve?
People simply do not leave shame-driven conversations motivated with clarity on what to do next. they are often left angry, misguided, and lost….
Morgan (2025) page 62
Shouting at people is rarely effective. Better to persuade towards better practice. None of us are perfect so compassion for imperfections is vital as we encourage progress.
For more on the climate crisis see Measuring Impact On Climate, The Pope And The Climate Crisis, and Limits And Self-Limits
For relevant definitions see MASB’s Green Marketing | Universal Marketing Dictionary
For her chat with Nathan Stuck listen here
Read: Jenny Morgan (2025) Cancel Culture in Climate, Jenny Morgan