Yes, Cancel Culture DOES Exist

Can there be any more scary of a phrase than "Cancel culture doesn't exist, it's just people being held accountable."

The amount of damage, destruction, abuse, harassment, discrimination, and death that can come from the idea of "just holding people accountable" is endless.

When gunmen stormed the Charlie Hedbo offices in Paris, killing 12 cartoonists, guess what their argument was? Essentially, they were merely holding those cartoonists accountable for their actions. In this case, the action was an act of blasphemy that these gunmen felt needed to be addressed - through murder and terror.

RELATED: Je Suis Charlie...Still!

If we take this to the extreme, again, we could look at Stalin who had no shortage of reasons for killing and putting people in gulags, and most of it was justified as holding people accountable for, say, being in opposition to Stalin's ideas. And that scenario has been played out a horrendous amounts of time in history. Hey, when witches were burned at the stake, they were merely being held accountable for being witches, right?

Obviously, those are the extremes and fortunately we aren't seeing people put up against a wall and outright shot (yet). But there are those who absolutely insist that people need to be held accountable and in this quest will cheer on even the harshest of punishments, no matter how disproportionate.

In the current climate of demanding that people are "held accountable," it isn't good enough for sinners to say, "Hey, I said something wrong, and I'm sorry." Now, it's a matter of say something wrong? Let's try and sink this person's whole career. Let's make them pay as high of price as possible, whether it makes sense or not. "

Fortunately, there are those who get cancelled and survive attempts to destroy them. One could put JK Rowling in this category. Despite all efforts by some to want to completely smear her and destroy her reputation, legacy and career, never the less, she persists. And for what? Taking a very reasonable stance on gender issues and women's rights that is seen as transphobic. Sadly, those who support cancel culture will look at a case like JK Rowling and use it as an excuse as to why cancel culture isn't as damaging as some insist. Yes, some DO survive the attempts to sink them, but that doesn't make the efforts to destroy them any less repulsive.

Sometimes, the cancelling is a one off deal, but that doesn't make it any more acceptable. When, for example, a speaker is invited to a university for an event but a mob protests because they don't like that speakers views, even if they aren't all that terrible, this is absolutely a case of cancel culture. Who loses? Those who want to hear varied views and opinions in an academic setting. Freedom to express dissenting views is at risk. Just because someone has a view that you dislike doesn't mean they need to be held accountable for anything or that they don't deserve an opportunity to speak.

Now, sometimes, yes, there are very genuine reasons for people paying large prices for their actions or behaviors. Right now, it's fair to say that Marylin Manson is being cancelled. Well, there is a good reason for that. He is known as a serial abuser who has caused great damage to a lot of people. His actions, if proven without a doubt to be true, are criminal. This is the kind of stuff that can and probably should result in paying a large price. The punishment suits the crime in a case like this.

RELATED: Should I Still Listen to Marylin Manson?

However, when I look at what happened to NASCAR driver Kyle Larson last year, where after saying the N-word while playing a video game he lost his sponsors, his seat on a big race team and was suspended from NASCAR. His punishment in this case was more severe than Marylin Manson's thus far and that is disproportionate to his "crime." I can support the punishment Manson is getting, I can't support the treatment that Kyle Larson received.

RELATED: I Will Not Abandon Kyle Larson

It seems that the biggest contingent of people who say that cancel culture isn't a thing are folks on the left of the political spectrum. What they don't seem to see is that cancel culture doesn't just affect the "baddies" on the right. One of the most ridiculous examples of cancel culture would be what happened to Colin Kaepernik, the football player who has been essentially blackballed from the NFL for his peaceful protest of kneeling during the nation anthem before games. This is most definitely a case of someone paying a disproportionate price for an act deemed a "sin". Fortunately for Colin, he has found his niche in the world, as an activist and face for Nike, netting him millions of dollars. But, that doesn't change the fact that an injustice was done to him.

Another example? There was an ANTIFA demonstration in Hamilton, Ontario, in which a young activist was recording getting in the way of an 81-year old woman who was going to listen to a controversial politician. He screamed at her, calling her "Nazi scum." It was revealed that the person who did it was the son of a Syrian restaurant owner in Toronto. The outrage mob that issued threats and anger at the parents of the kid involved forced them to close the restaurant. Yes, the kid's parents had to pay the price for the questionable behavior of their son. Cancel culture clearly is no friend of the left either.

In all honesty, this essay could easily go on for pages and pages listing those who have been negatively affected by cancel culture. There are many reports out there to read from The Atlantic, National Post, Uncommon Descent, Spiked, Washington Post, and Persuasion. Sigh. No shortage of cases proving that cancel culture does, indeed, exist.

Heck, even former President Barack Obama has criticized the way people are being "held accountable" and woke cancel culture:

So, yes, whenever I hear that cancel culture doesn't exist and that what we are talking about is just holding people accountable, I cringe. I cringe because people either aren't paying close enough attention, are in denial or just want to take the opposing view of their enemies no matter what it might be. I cringe because we seem to have a glutton of imperfect people wanting to hold other imperfect people to account by going after their jobs, wanting them to be disinvited from speaking events or disrupting the events if they happen, wanting their books banned, pushing for boycotts - you name it, they want the harshest of punishments.

Cancel culture is very real, it's destructive, it's divisive and it is getting us nowhere. So, stop saying it doesn't exist!