Written by Helen Strickland
There are many buzzwords I am tired of these days, and “canceled” is probably at the forefront of those words. For those who have managed to avoid this concept altogether: canceling someone is publicly denouncing/unfollowing/unsubscribing to them because they said something that a large enough group of people found “problematic” enough to find the person guilty. To be canceled is a devastating blow to more left-wing individuals and a badge of honor for more right-wing ones.
Here is my first issue with using this word: it simply encourages division and animosity between political parties. There are several more problems with this idea. Much canceling comes out of social media. Social media is not a source of much accurate information; recently it is primarily a cesspool of misinformation, bullying and conspiracy theories. When people are canceled, those canceling them will post about their wrongdoings on social media — sometimes with proof, sometimes without it. Thus, people can easily be canceled for things they did not do or things taken out of context.
Canceling also leaves no room for nuance. To some cancelers (especially some online), people who are canceled are dead to the cancelers. The perpetrators are all bad. They cannot apologize in any real way. There is hardly any acknowledgement of situational factors or complications of a situation.
Because of this lack of nuance, there is no room for grace. There is no room for forgiveness. To forgive the canceled is always to side with them. This is neither empathetic nor constructive. Put yourself in the shoes of the wrongdoer. We all do things that are wrong — things that someone somewhere would disagree with. Imagine if everything you have ever done was held under an unforgiving microscope, ready to hate you as soon as you mess up just once.
We have established a few problems with cancel culture. However, to dismiss it is to fall down a slippery slope that lacks accountability. This reaction against cancel culture is online, too: people are fans of the canceled simply because they were canceled. This is also a problem and has contributed to bringing felons and downright unethical people into positions of power. Reactionary actions that fully dismiss cancel culture and turn in the complete other direction by dismissing any need for ethical behavior and praising unethical behavior are also unproductive. This lack of accountability can easily be far more dangerous than canceling people.
Instead of canceling, I say we turn to good, clean accountability. We hold people in power accountable. We understand humanity’s tendency to fail, but we recognize that some failures are incredibly harmful to other humans. We give grace. We seek to understand fully without leaping to conclusions.I am tired of cancel culture, and I am tired of reactions to cancel culture. Neither of these things works. Our society longs for accountability in all its nuances.
