I always have a chuckle when I hear the term cancel culture and I thought this Medium piece was pretty good in framing how that term has been tossed around.
"There is no such thing as “cancel culture” — there is only culture.
There are social mores, norms of public behavior and expression, norms and customs that both exert and absorb constant pressure and negotiation in the public square.
And this is an interesting extension of your question, dphatt.
How is it “cancel culture” for a for-profit company to respond to market pressures, or for a private media platform to decide that hosting someone’s statements devalues their brand, never mind helping to undermine the social contract itself?
The MLB All-Star Game being moved to Denver from Georgia is a good example of a professional sports league making a cold, calculated decision — not a "woke" one — to limit its exposure to a third-rail American issue that threatens to overshadow its money-making endeavor.
If the game had gone on as planned, the question of player boycotts would have become the signature story: Every hitter and pitcher would have been questioned on their views and been forced to make some sort of public stand, adding up to even more political pressure placed on MLB.
MLB decided to take the hit once and let the Eye of Sauron move on to something else (like the Masters for instance).
So in that same vein, the PGA came to the realization that being connected to Trump would overshadow its event so much and so negatively that it would cost less overall to distance itself from him, much like the R&A did preemptively.