“This isn’t a commentary on cancel culture. But we do tend to move in cycles in terms of human history, and we’re going through a certain period of the cycle right now. There are many very significant differences between the current time and the Cultural Revolution. But there are also some similarities. It was never something where we were like, ‘We should do this show because we want to make a commentary on that.’ But it is interesting that the parallels are there and are hard to ignore.”

– David Benioff, showrunner for Netflix’ 3 Body Problem series, on a scene from the Chinese Cultural Revolution which appears in the show and has sparked controversy over its similarity to modern cancel culture.