mukund shyam

Cancel culture is the act of calling people out for mistakes they make (or have made) online, mostly on twitter.

I can’t deny that it has some importance and it does help society in some minuscule ways, but I’m fairly certain that it does way more harm than good.

The Good Aspects

Cancel culture definitely has some good aspects to it.

It helps people understand their mistakes and rectify them.

It shows society what is acceptable and what it not.

It helps people evolve as human beings.

The bad aspects are much much worse.

Firstly, while the idea of cancel culture is quite good, the execution is less than ideal. Fighting fire with fire is one thing, what occasionally happens is people end up trying to cancel others with extreme hate, sometimes even something as dangerous as death threats.

Death threats are never to be taken lightly, as they can permanently cause an emotional scar on people.

The fact that people end up telling people to kill themselves over a misunderstanding is far from something we need in a healthy society. It’s not good.

Secondly, people end up cancelling others over a misunderstanding. People interpret statements or jokes as racist or homophobic or anti-Semitic or sexist; and pretty much 100% of the time it is a misunderstanding.

Either the person who’s cancelling doesn’t understand that the statement is a joke, or they don’t think the joke is warranted (which is fine, but what I don’t think is fine is personally attacking people who believe the joke is acceptable).

Humour has gotten people into many sticky places, including the Supreme Court in India; but in the end, that’s all it is: Humour.

And lastly, people change. Most people who are getting cancelled now are not getting cancelled over something they’ve said just now, they’re getting cancelled over something they’ve said between five and ten years ago.

People change, they become more mature and understanding. Only when you make mistakes can you grow. You might think something is acceptable now, but in 5 years it’s possible you don’t agree with that anymore.

Either you’ve not been alive long enough to make a mistake, or people haven’t found the mistake yet.

Forget people, even the landscape of society changes. Society 10 years ago was extremely different to what it’s like today, and comparing what took place then to what takes place now makes no sense. What was acceptable then may not be acceptable now.

I think calling people out for their mistakes is important as that’s what helps them grow. But telling them to kill themselves, or blackmailing them, or threatening them? That’s not the way.

For a better, more accepting society (somewhat counterintuitively), either cancel culture has to change dramatically or it has to go.

Thanks for reading.