Cancel culture: The Good, The Bad and the Filthy
Cancel Culture, also known as the modern form of ostracism meaning, exclusion from a society or group. Ostracism was a procedure in the Athenian democracy in which any citizen can be expelled or banished from the city of Athens. Similar to its successor “Cancel Culture” in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles either online on social media, in the physical world, or both. These people who are then subject to this phenomenon are said to be and referred to as “canceled”.
Cancel Culture has various benefits. Cancel Culture has helped in fighting against racism, sexism, or any abuse that happens to a person. It has held people responsible for their wrong actions in ways that weren’t possible in the past. A concrete example of this is the BLM movement which was started when people saw police brutality at its most gruesome state. A man by the name of George Floyd was killed by a police officer while he was restrained. This crime woke up many people especially the African-American community who was greatly affected, thus creating the BLM movement. Which cancelled racism and opened up many opportunities for African-Americans to speak and spread their sorrow and anguish towards the racist people.
Cancel Culture has many flaws to it. Cancel Culture tends to do more damage than repair. When a person is cancelled it may be really hard for them to make a sincere apology and hard for them to make a comeback. Cancel Culture tends to be very unforgiving. In other words it is very toxic. Many people say that those who are part of Cancel Culture are uptight. They are very emotionally unstable and can’t take jokes. This is also considered as why the older generations dislike the younger ones. The younger generations are too soft.
There is a dark side to cancel culture. Cancel Culture is unforgiving and dirty in a way It is said to be an act of public shaming. Some people are even just in it for the chaos it brings.An example of this is when rioters came to the black lives matter movement. Even though something positive came out of it. They broke into stores, looted buildings and other various shops. they destroyed the insides and deprived the owners from running a business. This resulted in the police taking charge and even the military. People were injured by cars running them over. The policemen were armed with rubber bullets to contain the chaos and later on it subsided because the policeman who killed George Floyd was put in prison. This is the Dirty side of Cancel Culture because they destroyed businesses and other properties of the innocent people. The anger was not enough; they resulted to wrath and disrespected many people.
Cancel Culture is a mix of both good and bad and it is too early to say which ways more. It may have a bad and dirty side to it but it also brings out the good. In some particular fashion Cancel Culture has found a way to make people accountable for their wrong actions, and make people think before they act.
Article Writer, Andrew Navata.