How to Cancel Correctly

It is often that someone’s past seems to always come back to them one way or another. Either by making a small mistake that just haunts them, or forgetting to pay someone for a favor. In this current time we live in, that small mistake can lead to serious issues. In that case, most times this can be dealt with in private. For celebrities, their mistakes will be discovered. This can lead to people’s perspective of that said celebrity to change for the worse. With this now going on in today’s standards, this has developed the Cancel Culture.

Cancel Culture is an act of canceling someone due to their questionable or controversial beliefs/opinions. It became a large phenomenon due to the #MeToo movement against those like Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, who in the past has assaulted women. It still continues today, with a recent attempt to Joji, a musical artist who was targeted due to his previous YouTube persona, Filthy Frank. But unlike the celebrities that were targeted for the terrible acts and opinion, Joji was not a racist or a sexist. More likely, it was the comedy and immaturity of the Filthy Frank persona that was once accepted, has now got people upset. It seems like now instead of the culture canceling those who don’t deserve to be likely due to their disgrace act and opinions, it targeted those who just don't follow their standards of social norms.

Like previously mentioned, Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby were correctly cancelled. It was proven that they both assaulted women and they tried to hide the fact as much as they could. The same applies to R. Kelly with his previous acts towards underage women. On the other hand, Kevin Hart and James Gunn were cancelled incorrectly. They both made jokes on their old Twitter post that was the norm at the time. With a new outlook in our social structure, it made those tweets outdated. Due to this, many who saw it thought they should be cancelled. Comparing those who rightly deserve to be cancelled, to those who were cancelled under small circumstances, it seems like Cancel Culture is now toxic, misleading and unreliable.

The culture has become toxic in its own right for trying to target those who don’t agree with their social norm. It can make an individual feel miserable for something that was okay and accepted. Why do we focus on celebrities in this culture? Why not former presidents like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, who have done some shady things? Why not companies that used foreign workers on the other side of the globe? There are bigger things we can cancel to make our world better. But it seems like Cancel Culture will not go for a meaningful purpose. Instead it will only quiet those that aren’t part of the culture. If we continue to cancel people for the smallest of incidents, then no one is safe. So we should begin to do it correctly and safely.

To correctly cancel someone, there has to be proof and reasoning why that particular person must be cancelled. To do so, check on what made that individual to be worth canceling. If they present themselves as a good individual in the public eyes, but they were actually terrible people in private eyes, then they should be canceled. For instance, people who knew Ellen DeGeneres said she’s a terrible person who pretended to be a nice person in her own show. Why isn’t she canceled as well? Another sign to be aware to cancel someone correctly if what they said was actually how they exactly think. Going back to Joji, he is not a racist or a sexist. It was his character, Filthy Frank, that was racist and sexist. Joji doesn’t believe or think these thoughts. Same goes for comedians like Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr, who kept their comedic style light heart to poke fun at many people. Their job is to poke fun at social and political structures and ideas to make people laugh, not to encourage hate and bigotry. So hopefully this helps those who are canceling others understand how to do it correctly. If not, the culture itself will become the very same thing it is trying to cancel.