Depends how widely one defines "cancel culture" I think.

The witch-hunt that often occurs, involving people that aren't even fans? link

People boycotting / "cancelling" Chris Brown because he punched Rihanna multiple times in the face in what was clearly domestic abuse? Good and absolutely deserved

I think that it can depend but generally (at least in these times) it is often abused. And more often than not the person being cancelled didn't really do anything wrong. Like in this climate, it's become dangerous because people just follow the herd and don't do their own research on the situation/don't look at both sides or all of the facts. They just jump on the hype train.

But people boycotting Chris over domestic abuse is an example of a good thing. This is good because there was very clear evidence that he did do what he was accused of and the thing that he did was worthy of boycotting him over.

Media I don't like deserves to be canceled. But don't do it to stuff I like, no matter how problematic it is

A counter-point to myself: some Australian celebrity chef got sorta "cancelled" a few weeks ago (in that he received public backlash and a few companies dropped deals with him) and it's been fantastic.

Long story short, he posted link to his social media. A neo-nazi symbol, and the suggestion that Trump supporters (of which he is one) are supposed to go down the pipeline to neo-nazism. It had been posted on a white supremacist website a few hours before. In the comments section, he suggested that people "learn the true history of Nazi Germany".

I'm glad that he had his book deals dropped but I'm disappointed it took this long. He's been a vocal Qanon-er and anti-vaxxer for ages now. He got fined this year by the consumer rights watchdog for selling a fancy lights device (costing $8000) as a "coronavirus cure". His "paleo diet for babies" cookbook had to be pulled from the shelves because it advocated feeding infants bone broth, which would kill them from malnutrition.

Everything he’s ever done has been lying for money:
“Paleo diet cures all disease” - buy my book

“Fluoride is poison” - buy my water filter and coconut water

“Sunscreen causes cancer” - buy my sunscreen alternative

“Vaccines are evil” - buy my immune boost supplements instead

And yet multiple companies (including our main supermarket chains) supported this conman til now.

I hope he fades into obscurity but my suspicion is that he won't. He's gained a pretty big social media following from saying that coronavirus is all a conspiracy.

If it's a celebrity/someone with wealth/power/status - Then it's misused as a defense and a way to avoid apology. Look at all these people whose careers were ruined from "cancel culture" - Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Johnny Depp, Jimmy Fallon, JK Rowling, Ellen Degeneres... Oh, wait, they still make millions of dollars, sell their work, and get gigs. Frankly, these people could do with being held as accountable as possible, as they are so untouchable.

HOWEVER - individuals on the internet, not the rich and famous, with little to no power, it does more harm than good. link

But in the case of the link because one of their writers published a misogynistic op-ed on the new FLOTUS (wherein he actually calls her "kiddo") - It's just a way to avoid accountability.

You said some stupid shit. You got called out on it. "Mea culpa" comes across a lot better than throwing a tantrum about how you - with your cushy position where you can reach millions of readers and subscribers - are being "cancelled."

@ThePrincesTale Actually it was revealed Rihanna and Chris Brown were equally at fault because they were attacking each other. It was a nasty relationship in general. Even Rihanna herself admitted it. But regardless I agree with your point. People need to be held accountable.


Regardless people can't say stupid shit like: "I am heading to Africa I hope I don't get AIDS!" Like in Cinders example. It's fucking racist af. ARGUABLY if you want to make extremely controversial jokes ( And you aren't an asshole masquerading as someone who makes dead baby jokes,etc to friends and family) then maybe that sort of person shouldn't just say that shit online so haphazardly. But it's truly a thin line.

There's many social issues that plague the world today and unfortunately cancel culture for all the good and bad it does is a societal consequence. People need to be held accountable. There's always going to be assholes and always going to be unstable people. Hell I knew someone who was both of those things but blaming a concept is not always the correct thing to do. (Extreme concepts like nazism,fascism,sexism,racism,etc are the ones that deserve to be stamped out) Often times it's the individuals who are misusing a concept that need the most blame.

@Princes I think that that's an interesting point to. I think that perhaps people who are handing out misinformation for some cash deserve to be cancelled because that can be extremely harmful.

@Cinders If it's a celebrity/someone with wealth/power/status I think that this is kind of my bottom line. I think that wealth/power/status are things that should be assessed when cancelling someone. If it's going after someone who would otherwise be unaccountable, that's one thing. But I've seen so many instances of people going at your average tumblr user. Like literally just an average person who said one stupid and/or ignorant thing and just tear them apart with NO benefit of the doubt. Worse still, I've seen a person with 10,000+ followers rally their followers up to cancel someone with less power and status; like they cancelled someone who had maybe 1,000 or so followers. At that point I think cancel culture had been weaponized and used as a bullying tactic which isn't okay. And I feel like that is what cancel culture has warped into lately. Your linked case was a fantastic example of this.

I'm also split on the Johnny Depp issue; I've actually hard that Amber was the abuser in that relationship. And Depp actually did lose a huge job because of these accusations; link

I typed an article about this and I would really love to hear your opinion on it as you are one of my favorite debaters!
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