Why I'd Like to Cancel Cancel Culture

Thank goodness I grew up without social media. Between cancel culture and cyberbullying, if I had come of age at a time when my life was on public display, there is little doubt in my mind that at least one of the many mistakes I made along the way would have been swiftly and harshly judged. I definitely would have been canceled. 

That's not to say that my mistakes were any worse than any of my peers'. It's just that social media has created an uncompromising culture of shutting people down when they make mistakes, no matter how much they may have evolved as a result or what good they may have accomplished in other areas of their lives. Plus, the gauge for cancel culture can be arbitrary and unpredictable.

To me, cancel culture—while sometimes wholly appropriate—is too often today's version of mob mentality. Only now, rather than gathering together in the town square, the mob is made up of people who are holed up in their individual homes, hiding safely behind computer screens. And instead of using pitchforks, they exact judgment with a few quick keystrokes. It's always been easy to participate, the feeling of moral superiority a rush.

In a video included below, President Barack Obama talks to a group of young activists, and he says it well.

"This idea of purity, and you're never compromised, and you're always politically woke and all that stuff: You should get over that quickly," he said. "The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

The truth is more complex than the social media mob would have it. People are not all good or all bad. We're a mixture, each of us a work in progress. We've all done good things. We've all made mistakes. The best we can hope for is that we're growing in the right direction, one of self-awareness and self-improvement and perspective.

It's funny to be writing this because I'm used to being one of the more progressive voices in a given room, but my opinion of cancel culture seems to be an unpopular one when it comes to being "woke." I do think ostracizing people who have done great harm has its place. Canceling the Harvey Weinsteins of the world is not only welcome but long overdue! But in general, cancel culture is a phenomenon that scares me. It feels uncompromising and irrevocable, a matter of time before it comes for every last one of us. 

I hope to see an evolution of cancel culture toward forgiveness and growth, where people are not only allowed to make mistakes but are celebrated for coming through the other side a better person.