You might find the podcast about "cancel culture" interesting.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1270-youre-wrong-about-497649...

They observe the term means different things to different people, and as other people have pointed out here, that the loosely defined behavior ascribed to 'cancel culture' has been around for a very long time. They have a whole episode around the "Dixie Chicks" or as an example from further back perhaps arguably the McCarthyist Red Scare.

Did we read different articles? The one I read is about right-wing attacks on professors.

That's what he means - the people who were cheering about cancellation might go silent now that the right starts adopting their tactics.

This isn't a partisan issue. Individuals have been "cancelled" for as long as individuals who hold power disagree with individuals who hold less power (collective or individual).

I must have missed the sarcasm by reading at face value. Downvote away, I guess.