Cancel Culture: Why it is the Stupidest Thing to Ever Exist

 By Eshaan Patel

Sixteen years before now, a teen posts a controversial comment on a controversial issue. Now, people who found the comment are cancelling him even with his fame and glory. It would be with difficulty that he would be able to continue his normal livelihood, for not a soul in his vicinity is pro-him, and they would likely try to attack him. "Cancel culture" is a broad term referring to a mostly digital "culture" in which people bring about an attempt to "cancel" persons, corporations and organizations. In the scenario mentioned, "cancelling" refers to deliberately ending support for the thing being "cancelled". Although many believe that this can hold individuals and companies accountable for their actions, cancel culture is often abused by the cancellers. Cancel culture is severely detrimental to society for a multitude of reasons, including that it is able to devastate the livelihood of the people cancelled, the ways in which it has the ability to espouse hatred towards people, along with how it has the skill to be put to the extreme and turn in to simply unjust punishment, and the movement itself should be cancelled due to these reasons.

To start, cancel culture is crippling to society since it has the ability to fordo the lives of the cancelled, providing no room for them to improve and fix their behavior. Clashing with the beliefs of many people who claim  that it holds the cancelled accountable, people can be outright mocked and threatened whilst in the process of living their stock daily life out in the open. According to "Cancel Culture: The Good, The Bad, and its Impact on Mental Health" by VeryWellMind, "[One] may feel ostracized, socially isolated, and lonely, [with] research [showing] that loneliness is associated with higher anxiety, depression, and suicide rates." This shows that cancel culture is detrimental since it can literally destroy the lives of the cancelled, including the physical and the mental life. Additionally, in the article "Cancel Culture: Accountability of Bullying?" by Psychology Today, it states that "it gives no room for change and growth over time, accepting responsibility and learning", showing the prevention of improving the life of the cancelled person or persons by cancel culture, even when one improves their behavior. Closing, cancel culture wears down society since it demolishes literal lives and hinders their betterment of their behavior.

Shifting on further, cancel culture is also detrimental to society since it can sponsor hatred and bullying towards specific persons and groups. Although it is the truth that cancel culture can give otherwise unheard persons a voice, the truth is it discriminates against other people as a result. To state one example, in its previously mentioned article, Psychology Today also imperates to "[c]ompare cancelling and cyberbullying". "Cyberbullying" is the deliberate bullying and exclusion of a person or persons online, while cancelling can be bewritten as the same thing, however, taken much further, for cancelling is done often on a larger and more open layout than traditional cyberbullying. In both cases, the cyberbullied and the cancelled are ostracized and excluded from the doing of activities they enjoy. Cyberbullying is often given a negative connotation by the media, so why is cancel culture then inherently "good"? If one truly dove into the true definition of cyberbullying, it can also give people a voice. Both also have the skill to move into the outside world, for the cyberbullied and cancelled may both get ostracized, excluded, and the such in public. To end, cancel culture is diminishing to society as it is able to espouse bullying and hatred to specific persons and peoples.

Last but not unimportantly, cancel culture is also detrimental to society since it is often turned into unjust punishment. While it is true that cancelling people can help them learn from their mistakes in the past, many people take this to the extreme, in other words, when they make an attempt to cancel someone, they look for ways so that the person in question is seen as guilty by the public, even if their action or behavior was something that took place years, decades or [in the case of historical figures] even centuries ago. Pew Research states in its article "Americans and 'Cancel Culture': Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment" that "people are not taking the context of a person’s post or the intentions behind it into account before confronting that person." This shows that a large amount of cancelling is done blindly. If one was speaking one thing, however, the listener misinterpreted what was spoken, does that give the listener the right to publicly hold the original speaker accountable? The answer to this question is No. That is simple cruelty and unjust punishment. The listener only posts their interpretation of what had been spoken, and all that is taking place is the spread of a false, misinterpreted agenda and narrative. To finish, cancel culture is very often linked to unjust punishment.

In conclusion, cancel culture is outright terrific for society for many reasons, including that it can devastate the lives of the cancelled, it can sponsor hate and bullying towards the persons who have been cancelled, and it is often abused and taken to the absolute extreme. It is for this reason that cancel culture itself should be cancelled. To restate, "cancelling" is when one deliberately ends support for a person, persons, or a group. Ending off, once cancel culture itself is cancelled, our famous man from the beginning can go about his daily life without hesitation.

Works Cited

“Americans and ‘Cancel Culture’: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 30 June 2022, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/05/19/americans-and-cancel-culture-where-some-see-calls-for-accountability-others-see-censorship-punishment. Accessed 16 Mar. 2023.

“Cancel Culture: Accountability or Bullying?” Psychology Today, 7 Apr. 2021, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/202103/cancel-culture-accountability-or-bullying. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

Toler, Lindsey. “The Mental Health Effects of Cancel Culture.” Verywell Mind, 14 Apr. 2022, www.verywellmind.com/the-mental-health-effects-of-cancel-culture-5119201.