Cancel Culture

Reliable Sources and Bias          One of the most critical parts previously discussed that pokes holes in the legitimacy and effectiveness of cancel culture is access to non-bias, reliable information. The two types of bias that can impact cancel culture is straight up bias information and the receiver of the information only seeking out the evidence they want to hear, or in other words, confirmation bias. In today's day and age, we live in a society where we often seek out information that supports our preconceived notion of whatever might be going on. Going back once again to Kanye (this is completely for the sake of example): only seeking out information or content that makes Kanye look like a bad person to confirm someone's preconceived idea that he is a bad person. There is never going to be a situation that is going to be totally bias free. But the more that people can try to be aware  of their bias, the more likely it is to save them from part...

Having a Conversation           Besides the other problems with cancel culture, it is also very aggressive, fragile, and sometimes even dangerous. Loretta J. Ross is an activist who according to her website, she “speaks, trains, consults, and lectures on many issues including reproductive justice, appropriate whiteness, human rights, violence against women, and calling in the calling out culture.” Recently, she did a Ted Talk about her new perspective of “calling in instead of calling out.” Essentially, the main point of her Ted Talk is to consider calling someone in, instead of out. What calling in means is inviting this person to have a conversation with you, instead of calling them out for something they said or did. Strive to understand there perspective and engage in a conversation where progress can be made and sides can be shared.  Going back to the Kanye example, let’s say you are someone who believes that no one should be listening to his musi...

 What Makes Cancel Culture Fail         T he three main concepts that make cancel culture not work is the lack of information/spread of misinformation, using cancel culture as a means of destruction, the inability for people to look at the context of the situation, and the mob/sheep mentality people have.  Oftentimes, people will hear something in a rumor or from a source that is not really reliable yet believe it. From then on, the rumor just continues to spread like wildfire and no one fact checks any of the information they heard and just believes it. As discussed previously, there are also situations where people choose to use the effects of cancel culture as a means to attack people’s reputation or careers. I want to point out that this of course does not happen 100% of the time, but it has happened before. What this turns into is exploiting the effects of cancel culture for self benefit either because of a grudge or because someone doesn’t like s...

Americans Knowledge Surrounding Cancel Culture           According to Sara Atske and the Pew Research Center(PRC), a nonpartisan research center that conducts public opinion polling about controversial topics, they found that out of the 10,093 US adults they asked if they had heard about cancel culture, only 44% knew either a "great deal" or "a fair amount." Now of course roughly ten thousand adults does not constitute the entire American population. On top of that, the general trend is that the people who know more about cancel culture are those using social media, thus younger people.  Like many things in this country that don't need to be politicized, cancel culture has sure enough made its way into the political world. Once again, cancel culture at the core is a way to  boycott a person or company for something they said or did that people don't agree with and hold them accountable. Nothing about the generic definition has anything to do with ...

 How I Got Interested In Cancel Culture          Throughout my years in school, especially during high school, I experienced and watched many instances of “cancel culture” unfold. If you were conservative in my high school, you were a essentially a social outcast. The situation that amazed me the most to this day is when I was a freshman in high school. One day out of nowhere, people began pulling up screenshots of things people had said over 5 years ago. Essentially, the students two grades above me(Juniors) started posting screenshots of people who had either said really dumb stuff or had typed out a word they should not have said over text a long time ago for dumb reasons but never directed at a person. Now I want to make it very clear that I fully acknowledge that there are essentially no situations where it is ever okay for someone to say or type any word that would cause offense. The people who did do this definitely did make a mistake and they s...