Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive.
I saw this definition online. I don't know if the concept has been changed over time but going by this definition, yes I would say cancel culture certainly exists.
My own feelings on it are kind of mixed. I do think people often jump on a bandwagon without sufficient information. I also think people will sometimes go way overboard in their reactions, such as in the example
@Father Heathen gave. Finally, I really loathe the instances in which somebody is attacked over a years-old tweet as it implies that people can't change their minds over time.
The flipside to this one is that people aren't obligated to buy from a company, read a particular series of books, watch a particular Youtube channel and so on. You can't really
make people buy the Harry Potter books if they don't want to. Also, the backlash to cancel culture sometimes strays into classic trap of essentially arguing, "I get to say what I want and if you criticise me, you're stifling my freedom of speech."
Personally, I would like a situation in which people are able to withdraw support and explain why without dogpiling somebody on twitter. Yeah, I know I might as well ask for a solid gold, flying pig while I'm at it.
Anyway, that's all sort of tangential to the OP but I thought I'd my broader thoughts on the subject.
I was curious if anyone considers the Cancel culture's "refusal to engage with uncomfortable ideas" as having an "asphyxiating effect on the creative soul of a society".
I don't quite agree with him on his first point as you can engage with uncomfortable ideas
and criticise somebody for endorsing them.* There is an abundance of literature available on Nazism for example, ranging from academic papers to pulp fiction. All of it, no matter how shallow, requires that you engage with an uncomfortable idea on at least some level. Even if you never have a civil conversation with somebody who endorses Nazism, that doesn't automatically imply a refusal to engage with the idea.
In terms of it having an asphyxiating effect on creativity ... I think he has a point there. One major criticism I have of some liberals (for the record, I consider myself a liberal) is a tendency to overlook context. To use Nazism as an example again, there's a difference between portraying Nazism and endorsing it. I've seen people complain that American History X is racist and I always want to yell, "It's showing how damaging racism is! How the hell did you miss that?" When people miss broader context in such a spectacular manner, I can easily see people being wary of including certain subjects in their art.
*See my previous statement on the issues surrounding that.