Those of us that been on social media long enough know about cancel culture. It's a cycle.
You find out someone you follow, a singer, content creator, actor, etc did or said something problematic. Call-out posts surface explaining what the person did. The person will either apologize, remove the offensive content, or double down.
Rinse and repeat with the next guy. The creator who made the call-out posts saw how well it did. What if they let their 15 minutes of fame get to their head?
Cancel culture does the opposite of what we want it to do. Sometimes, the person you're canceling didn't realize they did or said something wrong. Or it was miscommunication.
I've noticed, on my timeline, when folks have disdain towards someone. Instead of making a video or thread explaining who we're supposed to be mad at/who their talking about and why they're mad at them, they post vague tweets/memes and videos without explaining why we're supposed to be mad at whoever the poster is talking about.
I wish I saved examples. I'll give you one.
"How can you be in a movie about disabilities and turn out to be ableist"
The example, based on what I've seen, the poster didn't tell us who they were talking about, what the person did, and zero receipts to show what led to suspicion.
This example is based on a tweet I saw. When I asked if they saw a post/video etc that made them sus of the person in question, nothing. No dice. I asked if they did any digging on the person they were talking about, and their response was, "I'm not a spy." They said they were "kidding" and removed the post. They thought they could lie, and when asked for receipts they ran away. Things like this make me not trust folks. No one is going to believe baseless claims anymore. Nowadays people will lie about someone for clicks. If you're accusing someone of being racist, you need to have damning proof to back your claims. Otherwise, you are suspected of making shit up. Folks won't take you seriously.
I'd ask in the comments who are they talking about and what the person did and I get no response. Or if they respond by telling me what the person did, and I ask for receipts, I get no response. Somehow everyone and their dog knows the tea but no one has receipts. How does it relate to cancel culture? We know some folks don't have experience with doing their research to back claims, therefore potential misinformation can spread. Or people could hate train the wrong person due to the lack of info eg; they only tell us they're mad at Tom's voice actor, and there are thousands of games with a character called Tom therefore as a rule of thumb, they could target the actor for Tom from a game they recently played.
On TikTok people were mad at a mortician called Lauren. I assume no one provided information so people knew who to be mad at ( eg stitching the creator in question's video, tagging the account, etc) and people sent the wrong Lauren death threats. That's why you must give info on who you're mad at. The wrong Joe could get called out, potentially ruining his life.
if everyone and their dog is saying how problematic a person is yet no one has receipts, that sounds mighty fishy. Where are you getting this info from, why didn't you reshare from the person you saw it from if that's the case?
If someone's been hollering for 2+ years about how so and so is so problematic yet they have not put together a thread of receipts to back their claim. I find it sus that you saw/heard someone say something damning, instead of taking a screenshot/downloading the video, etc, and spelling out who you're mad at, you making a vague tweet. Chat doesn't know who to be mad at or people know the tea yet no one bringing home receipts. You could say they got the proof. Well, where is the thread with said proof?
if there isn't proof, or if all they have is an out-of-context comment/post, etc folks don't even say allegedly, supposedly, rumor has it, etc. When you ask for proof, you get no response.
Joe is anti-vax
what did he say?
no response
Rinse and repeat on other posts saying the same thing.
Then everyone and their dog is talking about a phonebook of shit Joe did yet no one is showing proof. I bet their "proof" is an out-of-context post, comment, etc.
To cancel someone, you need daming proof of what they did.
Cancel culture makes people stay in a bubble because if they sneeze the wrong way, chronically online people will cancel them. You can't even follow a particular person because people think a follow/like etc is an endorsement. What can you do without being canceled by chronically online people? I am NOT talking about being intentionally disrespectful, I mean if the person didn't know they said something bad and everyone cancels them, makes it sound like they knew (when they didn't) instead of talking to them first, in private. Or jumping on them for merely not knowing a brand is problematic.
For the most part, the person people are canceling doesn't even know they said something disrespectful. Everyone hops on the chance to get views/likes.
I thought about times when people assumed the worst before asking me. For example, a user assumed I was ungrateful when a post did better than I thought it did on here. Instead of asking "Hey this post got 2 dollars in case you didn't know" assumed I knew. I imagine a world where people get proof, damning proof, to back their claims. Asking someone FIRST before jumping the gun. if I want people to tell me before assuming, I'd guess the person you want to cancel feels the same way. Cancel culture went from canceling someone who truly deserves it, like a creeper, to jumping the gun over the smallest thing. Argo for simply following a social media account. Likes/follows don't equal endorsement. Considering the hate most celebrities get confirmed following on social media and likes don't mean you support them.
Chasing social media clout is making people become the one thing they hate. You hate clout chasers yet you're becoming one.
It's not about defending my "problematic fav" if everyone and their dog says Jack is racist, homophobic, supports the orange man, etc; conveniently no one has proof,(or posting said proof), or everyone and their mother vague posting, been singing the same song for 2+ years and has yet to put a video together with receipts explaining why their mad at whoever, it looks fishy, it makes you untrustworthy. For what it's worth at this point, you're lying. You mean to tell me you've been squawking that so and so is racist yet... you didn't tell us what the hell they said? You didn't show tweets, Instagram posts, DMs, Discord messages, or Tiktoks of whatever they said (with confirmation they knew what they said was disrespectful, something RECENT not 2+ years ago)
is hella sus. Cancel culture seems like a chance for likes and clicks for some people and not canceling an abuser. It's making social media toxic. it causes people to abandon social media altogether because they got hate mobed for simply not knowing something or they forgot they were following a particular account on Twitter and so on.
We have to do better. Unless we have daming proof to back our claims, stop saying someone is racist as a fact. Lets normalize talking to people first before canceling them.
