Cancel culture is the removal, a cancelling of people, organisations, brands, or products, usually down to something that a group, or community disapproves of, often without good reason.
For anyone living with difference, with a disability, and who are different, they are automatically cancelled out. For anyone who has read my story, they will know that I have spent a lifetime being ‘cancelled out.’ My blog keeps my thoughts and feelings visible and as I continue to write, I help others find their voice also.
Where support is ignored or it's withdrawn, cancel culture is damaging to the person being cancelled, particularly where support is mostly ignored, for no good reason.
In 2020 Pew Research Centre highlighted cancel culture. While 58% felt that it helped hold people accountable for their actions and what they do, 38% said that calling people out punishes those who don’t deserve it. (Source: verwellmind.com) No one deserves to be cancelled out.
Sadly, it has become all too easy to cancel people out, particularly for people who do good things. Society tends to cancel people out because it’s easier to do that, than it is for them to accept they have flaws, or that they need to take responsibility for what they do.
Everyone has a right to express themselves without recourse to themselves, for expressing a judgment, a social view, or for fear of negative responses from others.
And while society continues to cancel people out, the worse the outcome will be, because cancel culture will always have a ripple effect on everyone. No one can survive successfully when people and institutions are cancelled out. Cancel culture happens in families, institutions and in places of work, also.
In 2023, it’s time attitudes change so that everyone is inclusive and so that we are more supportive.
Cancel culture is one of the worst things that has come about in recent times. It used to be done mostly behind closed doors, like I dealt with as a child, but now it's out in the open and widely accepted.
I saw a bumper sticker that explained it well. It said something like 'beware of stupid people in large groups.'
You and I have both dealt with issues of being 'different' and I greatly appreciate how much of a power of example that you have been in helping me find my own voice.
Thanks Randy. Yes, respectfully, cancel culture needs not be cancelled culture anymore. If the world is to function, if we are to live in harmony with each other and for there to be a world new generations can be born into, cancel culture needs to be a thing of the past.
While earlier generations may not have got things right, we each need to learn from them, accept and embrace our differences and culture, to come together and support.