What Is ‘Consequence Culture’?

Instead of cancel culture, call it consequence culture.

At least, that’s what some Republican leaders and prominent conservatives are doing in the week since the assassination of the political activist Charlie Kirk. Dozens of people have lost their jobs for making remarks about Mr. Kirk that are perceived as insensitive. On Wednesday ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show over comments the late-night host made accusing “the MAGA gang” of trying to portray as a leftist the man who has been charged with Mr. Kirk’s murder.

The pressure campaign being carried out by Mr. Kirk’s allies — and led by the White House, where Vice President JD Vance has encouraged Americans to report to employers anyone “celebrating” Mr. Kirk’s death — was known as “cancel culture” not long ago.

In the last several years, some conservatives weaponized that term to attack those on the political left for trying to professionally harm or socially ostracize those who made statements or took actions deemed unacceptable.

Now some Kimmel supporters and others are accusing the right of embracing the same “cancel culture” it once maligned. In response, some Trump supporters are reframing it as “consequence culture.”

“When a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time and then that person is punished for it, that’s not cancel culture. That is consequences for your actions,” Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, wrote on X on Wednesday.

In an email, Mr. Portnoy declined to elaborate on his comments.

The term has been gaining traction in conservative media, in a headline in National Review (“‘Consequence Culture’ Comes for the Angry Left”) and posts on X from conservative activists like Riley Gaines, who wrote on Wednesday night: “Cancel culture? No. Consequence culture.”