To think 'cancel culture' is going way too far?

[Okeefe]

I've gone on twitter this morning to see #CancelKimmel trending, the reason.. he sang the N word when rapping a Snoop Dogg song in 1996.

Jenna Marbles being 'cancelled' due to doing blackface in a Nicki Minaj impression is 2011.

I swear every time I go on the internet, someone else is being 'cancelled'

People are digging up ancient tweets belonging to celebrities and normal people alike, searching for racist/problematic key words and contacting their employers, losing them their jobs and more often that not this content that they are 'cancelling' them for is historic

Are people not allowed to grow up? I'm pretty sure when I was in my early teens if I was singing along to a rap song, I would say the word like any other lyric. Would I now? No. Because I understand that it is offensive. Because I'm an adult now. Because times have changed.

I've had to quit twitter, it depresses me so much. You can't disagree with a word this woke generation say, or you too will be 'cancelled'.

YANBU. People are offended by everything these days it’s absolutely ridiculous.

It depends... I am sure the N word was offensive back in the 90's, at least where I grew up.
I think each case has to be looked at individually.

Eventually we will end up cancelling each other out, no one will be left especially now in the world of social media. I agree with an instagram post if you want to cancel someone just remove your support.

YANBU. If people change their perspectives and attitudes and but are hounded and vilified nonetheless then that’s very unfair. No one goes through life being 100% saintly because attitudes change over time. There will be things right now that we are doing and saying that may well be unacceptable in 20 or 30 years time... we might as well stop making entertainment full stop incase it offends people in the future, because no doubt something will.

Instead of looking up impact on rich celebrities why don’t you do something constructive OP like take the Harvard Implicit bias test?

implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

You will be shocked at the results.

I have a solution:

#CancelTwitter

Sorted

@FishHasDied

I have a solution:

#CancelTwitter

Sorted

Perfect solution, it is a misogynist cesspool.

Yes it’s gone too far, but it’s gone too far in the other direction too.

What I mean by that is that of course it’s unfair for celebs to have to endure Twitter abuse because they said or did something racist many years ago. But “being cancelled” doesn’t actually mean anything. It usually just means people send nasty tweets about you for a bit. There are people who have been “Twitter cancelled” who don’t even know they were cancelled because they don’t run their own Twitter account or don’t have one in the first place.

A much deeper problem is that “Twitter cancellations” give people the illusion of being in control and the illusion that something is happening when it’s not. And being “cancelled” seems to apply equally to a huge range of bad behaviour, so someone who said the N word once in 1998 and someone who serially sexually harasses women are treated the same.

For the most part people who are “cancelled” don’t experience any real consequences, like loss of job or criminal charges. Just some nasty tweets. Look how many men have been “Twitter cancelled” for sexual abuse/assault, people get the false sense that justice has been done because they’ve been cancelled but actually all that’s happened was they had to go off Twitter and keep their head down for a bit and maybe tweet a notes apology their publicist wrote.

I have a solution:

#CancelTwitter

Best advice!

It’s absolutely ridiculous.

I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea but Jenna Marbles has really upset me. She is a YouTuber who has documented her transition basically from stupid 20 year old to a balanced and eloquent mid 30s woman. She has admitted mistakes and has held her hands up and owned it in the past.

By “cancelling” (I swear cancel culture named itself because no one says those words without sounding like a massive bellend) people as soon as they’ve made ONE mistake isn’t giving people the time to grow and change and learn and become a better person.

It's gone too far. My friend uses a facebook group which talks about great finds in charity shops. She recently found a first edition Harry Potter for 20p so she put it up.

Next thing she knew she was deluged with messages from trans activists she had never met, calling her all sorts of names and saying she'd been cancelled!!! Luckily she thought it was funny but another person might have been really upset.

@Ylvamoon it doesn't matter whether it was already known to be offensive when they did it. The point is, nobody is the same person as they were 24 years ago, so to "cancel" someone today based on something dug up from their ancient past is ridiculous.

Cancel culture is always wrong, and always too far.

Justin Trudeau was cancelled for several counts of blackface and still managed to get re-elected. (With a reduced % of the popular vote, though - those'll be the Twitter voters ).

Cancel culture is always wrong, and always too far.

Even when it's a serial rapist?

Even when it results in a serial rapist losing their job?

Yep. It trivialises real issues and alienates the majority from causes that matter. I don't go on Twitter because it's utterly terrifying and basically just a pit of weirdness. I grew up in Australia, and eenie meenie minie mo was entirely unchanged even in the 90s. I don't even say it at all now, not even done it with my kids because I'm too worried I can't stop myself saying the wrong word in the middle.. .

I completely agree with you and I find it extremely hypocritical.
I can guarantee that every person in their youth did something stupid, not necessarily use a racist word, but I'm sure we all did something that was ill advised or something that hurt someone else.
Noone is perfect and there isnt a human on this planet who has acted perfectly in every scenario they've ever been in. So by that rationale, who on earth has the right to "cancel" someone else when its very clear they probably did stupid stuff back then too.

If a spotlight was shone on every single one of us at a moment in the past when we did something hurtful to someone else we would all be cancelled and none of us would come out smelling of roses.. I have never used the N word (i think its disgusting) but I am sure ive done other stuff that may have unintentionally hurt others and I take full responsibility for that. I'm not perfect. Neither is anyone else. Its one thing if someone continues to act in an appalling manner after the error of their ways has been pointed out - thats different and its true that some people simply dont care who they hurt. But the vast majority of people dont say or do things with the sole intention of hurting others and usually when they have been educated on what they did wrong, most people apologise and dont do it again. Those people have a right not to be tarred and feathered for someone they recognise was wrong and are making the effort to be better.

I think anyone who cancels people needs to take a very good long look in the mirror and question their own behaviour in the past, I doubt they can say truthfully that they have always acted perfectly themselves.

It depends... I am sure the N word was offensive back in the 90's, at least where I grew up.

Yep, the N word was definitely offensive back in the 90s.

People are acting as if anti-racism etc is a new thing - it's not, it's decades old. Trouble is the young have no knowledge/experience of life before they were born, so every generation think they're different, but they're really not.

Us oldies have seen it all before, time and time again.

"Popular" artists got away with it in the 90s and 00s because they were popular. People turned a blind eye.

Cancel culture has nothing to do with punishment of serious crime, retribution for harm to others, confinement for protection of society or rehabilitation/redemption of those whose circumstances warrant it. There are legislative processes and pathways for that.

Cancelling people because they offended someone is never a good idea, no matter who it is or what they said/did. That doesn’t mean I agree with them, or like them, or like what they said/did.

All the proponents of this current purity spiral should be very wary indeed of supporting it.

The point is, nobody is the same person as they were 24 years ago, so to "cancel" someone today based on something dug up from their ancient past is ridiculous.

Do lefties feel the same way about Tory politicians? Or is that somehow different? Hypocracy is alive and well.

@Cadent

Instead of looking up impact on rich celebrities why don’t you do something constructive OP like take the Harvard Implicit bias test?

implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

You will be shocked at the results.

That test is absolutely disputed as being of any use at all in Psychology circles.

Some huge meta analysis studies have shown that whatever biases may 'show' in the test, they do not translate to behaviour.

I realise that the entirety of the SJW movement is based on these, but they are rubbish and invalid.

The Canadian President was always dressing up in blackface. Why is he allowed to carry on if others aren’t?

People who complain about 'cancel culture' don't seem to really get what 'cancelled' means in practice

As Cathy says, very few people are ever permanently 'cancelled'. Usually it just means they lose some contracts, apologise, go away for a bit, and then come back with a nice story and everyone moves on.

That's the worse case, plenty of people manage to talk their way out of any consequences.

It is utterly ridiculous OP but frightening too. It worries me as I fear there is going to be a huge backlash in the future but in the meantime it is ruining entire lives and professions, preventing people from earning money and providing for themselves and their families. None of us are perfect and I think if dug deep enough anyone's past find you could find a reason to "cancel" them. For now I refuse to engage in any attempts to shame me. I won't accept that I am racist/sexist/transphobic/homophobic/privileged etc because some bullying mob on twitter or any other kind of social media tells me so. Fuck them.

@Cadent

Instead of looking up impact on rich celebrities why don’t you do something constructive OP like take the Harvard Implicit bias test?

implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

You will be shocked at the results.

That test is absolutely disputed as being of any use at all in Psychology circles.

I was about to say this same thing.