Should We Be Canceled for Canceling Others?
Modern media has perpetuated narratives about influential figures in society that influence the way that daily consumers view them as individual characters. A celebrity who is labeled as a troublemaker has no intent of mending their ways due to the publicity that they elicit from their gossip-worthy actions, and mainstream media makes no such initiative to clear names or evolve from past actions. The latest phenomenon to arise from the world of twitter is cancel culture, otherwise known as socially blacklisting any authoritative personality for any problematic actions they have performed whether it be in the past or present. Cancel culture can vary from calling out the actions of a celebrity in the past 5 minutes to resurfacing something from 10 years ago. The timeline is not important to the character of a luminary, but the fact that they did something that is questionable no matter how long ago they did it is the real problem.
We as a society do not normalize growth. There’s a saying that goes that if someone did 10 good things but one bad thing, people will always remember the one bad thing. Simply judging someone’s character off of a commentary that they made years ago that they might disagree with right now and “canceling” them is immature as adapting human beings who are prone to mistakes. It is in our biological nature as homosapiens to not exist as perfect beings that constitute a uniformed society, but to encounter shortcomings that challenge our outlook on life and the way we tackle decisions in the future. Having the audacity to cancel someone for something that they did years ago without taking into consideration whether or not they agree with that same action in this current timeframe is inconsiderate of us as humans because we would want the chance to explain mistakes we’ve made in the past and how we do not think that way anymore. Simply putting influential figures under fire and not giving them any chance to justify themselves should not be accepted, and the act of canceling someone after finding out something dubious about them should not be acceptable.
The consequences that come with canceling someone could greatly affect their quality of life. People who make their living off of social media applications that rely on their followers to provide them with their income may be left devastated after they lose money from losing followers and brand deals after they have been canceled for something petty. Pulling up old tweets or pieces of evidence that someone had a flawed mindset a while ago is no excuse to hold them accountable for those actions now since their mind has understood the gravity of the things they might have been saying in the past. Without taking the time to ask people to apologize for their past actions or describe how they’ve grown to think differently, we immediately jump on the hate bandwagon with no clear understanding of the situation. In doing all of this, canceling someone who doesn’t deserve it, the question begs to be asked– should we be canceled for canceling others?
The ethics that go into cancel culture vary greatly from person to person. People who get their income out of their social relevance might take a greater hit on their social welfare after being canceled, and therefore this process might affect them more deeply and be the most damaging affirmative argument against cancel culture. For people whose social life may not take a big hit after being canceled, the ethics are not weighed as heavily against them since they do not have any major risks involved. The only way we can be certain to avoid the most damage is to cancel the phrase cancel culture, and simply allow the normalization of the growth of people and celebrities alike in an evolving society.
