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One example of an "alternate form" I can immediately think of would be something like how after The Last Jedi you know how often I saw people shitting on Rian Johnson and accusing anyone who liked Knives Out (his 2019 mystery thriller that has nothing to do with Star Wars) of being "paid off" or some shit by Star Wars fans? Or how before the release of Hellblade you had Devil May Cry fans who said they'd never forgive Ninja Theory for DmC? And to use a political example, I still recall how the Dixie Chicks said they didn't like George W. Bush and conservative country fans said they were gonna boycott their music for not being supportive of a Republican president, so it's certainly not just "woke SJWs" who are likely to want to cancel someone over a "political" matter.

Like I'm just curious really, is "cancel culture" only restricted to incidents like Jenna Marbles indefinitely leaving YouTube because of some people on Twitter shitting over a video where she had a fake tan and pretended to be Nicki Minaj back in 2011? Or would you say "cancel culture" also extends to people who say things like "I hate The Last Jedi so much that I will never see anything Rian Johnson ever makes and anyone who says Knives Out is good is a fucking paid shill"?

It’s essentially boycotting or the threat of boycott. With the modern internet you can find controversy and assemble for a public statement with next to no effort, which is why it’s more common now. If this was 2005 you’d have to write a letter to the newspaper or something.

The desire to see people fail is nothing new at all. Denying trade was always the public’s form of justice. The problem with the public is that they’re trash sometimes.

Cancel Culture is unfortunately not a black mirror episode that warns about the future; it's already here

It may not be necessarily new or have just one form, but modern Twitter-conducted cancel culture does seem to make up well over half of its occurrences and the only reason why we are talking about it as much today, really.

I believe it's longstanding human behavior that's been exacerbated by social media and availability of information.

I think the main thing that should be focused on with cancel culture is targetting people who aren't in the public eye, who aren't celebrities, politicians, CEOs, etc. Like you said, people cancelling celebrities is nothing new, and has been done by various groups for various reasons. That aspect of cancel culture isn't new. What is new is the public targetting of regular joe schmoes, where they don't have the wealth and resources that comes with being a public figure to bounce back from this stuff.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/502975-california-man-fired-over-alleged-white-power-sign-says-he-was

Someone like this, that nobody knew before the incident, is hit hard by cancel culture. Fired from his "dream job" because he cracked his knuckles and someone took a pic of it thinking it was a hate gesture. Also the minors Skai Jackson doxxed, and IIRC one of them was expelled from school for it.

So, boycotting brands, companies, and politicians? Nothing new. But boycotting regular individuals whose first claim to fame is the controversy itself, that's something I think is unique to cancel culture. And I think it's what we should think of first and foremost when discussing it, because it very well can ruin people

Of course its nothing new. Its just a new name and updated along with new technology. It amazes me how ignorant so many people are of the past. Whether it be cancel culture, SJWs, the alt right, non-mainstream sexualities and gender (asexual genderfluid, etc.), or others, they act like none of it existed until around the year they personally discovered it. All of that has been around for hundreds to thousands of years, but just went under a different name.
In the 20th century, one form of "canceling" was outing gay people
Being called out as gay could lose you your job, and you didn't even need evidence, just the accusation of being gay could cost you everything.
and don't forget about the red scare where it was common to call out people for being, or appearing to be, communists.
And those are the lucky ones! lets hope you weren't black in 19th century America and a mob of people decide to accuse you of a crime

This is nothing new. Its not worse now. The only possible reason to believe its some new awful thing that didn't exist before would be because you know little of history and only know of what you have personally witnessed and unable to understand things outside of your world exist.

there's a word for that and it's called "mob culture"

Like some others said, cancel culture isn't really new. If anything it's just a modern day name for "mob mentality" or boycotting and the like. With how social media is in the way it connects us all, cancel culture manages to have a more profound effect. Considering how people want to "cancel" others, I can't help but get the thought that cancel culture itself is just nothing more than a way for people to be assholes.

I can get that with content creators and artist and the like their on a platform where bad ideas and the like can distributed and that there are creators and the like that are shit people such as say Stonetoss but I also feel that if the artist doesn't really know about the person beyond seeing one post the artist clicked like on without realizing how shitty the person is or if the content creator did something almost ten years ago that they literally regret it and thought "what the hell was I thinking?"I can't really see it all as some sort of justification to cancel them, especially when the people criticizing could also be artist though it may as well just be me but I have the cynical feeling it's more a way for those artist to boost themselves and milk clout.

You have a point, but what we have now is different from anything that came before for a simple reason. Any boycotting, mob, or other such "cancelling" in the past could be expected to remain restricted to its relevant community and should mostly only involve those directly affected by the matter at hand. This gradually changed as the world modernized and radio and television brought more information to more people, and ultimately the internet. In this "information age", people have a kind of wide, hyper-awareness of all sorts of acts and occurrences both great and small that go on in the world, nearly to the point of overload. This is what defines modern "cancel culture", its almost contagion-like spread that brings widespread awareness and the action of people not directly affected who otherwise would not be involved.

Basically, memes. Modern "cancelings" are internet memes.

Cancel culture has always existed, it’s just another form of which hunts