What you should know about cancel culture.
You cancel appointments, you cancel subscriptions but do you cancel people too? Let see…
We live in a world of interlinked cultures and cancel culture has joined the train. Recently, I found out that a lot of us indulge in cultural practices we didn’t know existed or were named, nah, not your regular traditional culture bruh. Cancel culture appears to be one of the most prominent especially in the social media age. I bet you’re a party, so lets get to it.
First things first, you know we have a lot of publicly righteous and politically correct people in our world today. I say publicly righteous because many do the very things they criticize or cancel because its on a public space.
Cancel culture is a popular practice of withdrawing support for public figures or entities for doing or saying something considered objectionable or offensive, did that click? When a person is cancelled, public support is withdrawn, that’s why public figures and companies are usually the victims of this cancelling or group shaming.
This cancelling manifests in group shaming on social media, unfollowing, harsh comments, social media dragging, boycotting their work and every other depiction of withdrawn social support. Let me give an instance. I’m sure a lot of us have seen the recently released movie Mulan and if you hold the same view with me, Hua Mulan was your favorite character. The character was played by American-Chinese actress Liu Yifei.
In 2019, she shared a picture of a Chinese newspaper containing a quote by a Chinese reporter who was assaulted by protesters during the 2019/2020 Hong Kong protests.
The quote read ” I support Hong Kong Police. You can beat me now. What a shame for Hong Kong”. The post sparked international controversy and Liu was accused of supported police brutality, so people started trending the hashtag #BoycottMulan. Consequently, she was absent from the 2019 D23 Expo that gave fans a sneak peak of Mulan. Personally, I like the fact that she was basically silent during the drag, which is what victims are advised to do if the situation permits. When asked in February, she stated “I think its just a sensitive situation” So you see how cancel culture almost ruined a whole production…bruh
This is just one of many instances, count the number of people that have been dragged or cancelled on social media this week alone. A celebrity involved in a scandal, cancelled, says something politically or socially incorrect, cancelled, it goes on,
It is said that the culture gained pace following the #Metoo movement that saw the cancelling of many prominent people facing sexual harassment or rape allegations, racist allegations etc, that’s why its also called the call-out culture.
Here’s the deal, while some say its a tool for accountability and social activism and as such shouldn’t be seen in a negative light, (which has some truth in it) it is undeniable that it is malicious some times. Presently, it has become a way for many to publicly reject someone they dislike or disagree with. In other words, an opportunity for many to validate their hate for another.
Social media is quick to pile and police increasingly high standards of political correctness. More so, unlike many think, it does not always amount to true social activism. On the contrary, it fuels the toxicity of an already toxic world. The said object of cancellation doesn’t change, one person is dragged this week, another next week. For every new drag, there’s a forgotten one.
Take a look at this wise words from The Captain;
Sincerely, many have tainted honest mistakes with actual hate. The culture is so ingrained that it takes only a hashtag to ruin a person’s life or career, especially when people don’t get all the facts before cancelling others on social media. As such, like The Captain said, we have more emotional reactions than empathetic conversations.
Many seem to get a notification when others falter, but are always oblivious of their own wrongs.
Fact.
This conversation is getting long. Frankly, I just think we need to be calming down on social media. A lot of people are yet to grasp the power of this tool called social media and that’s why many end up using it for all the wrong reasons. It’s the headquarters of cancel culture at the moment and we need to be careful about our online activities and statements. Before cancelling, get your facts right and be clear about your motive. If it’s for social activism, do it the right way but if it’s just born out of hate rethink. The hate you give comes backs on all of us.
That’s it fam! I hope you learnt one or two. Tell me what you think in the comment section; experiences, solutions, perspective, all of it! Remember to like, share and sign-up for more. Ciao!
I totally agree ma’am. We really need to be calming down on social media.
Right!
This is just the truth, written in plain English.
Thank you so much for this
Exactly, thanks
We seriously need to be calming down my dear.
Nice one Rejoice. ✨
Seriously
Cancel Culture is not going to stop so we all should better get used to it.
On the positive side, politicians and celebrities would be more circumspect with their words and actions knowing fully well that the wrong move could spell doom for them.
Getting used to it is what makes it thrive, I get the intoxication of social media, but I think as individual we should be more responsible about the things we do on social media.
Do you think people will ever be responsible?
Social media gives us power that we didn’t have before and as a lot of political analysts would opine, ‘power is bound to be abused’.
I’ve gotten used to it already.
Well getting used to it will make it thrive. I think as individuals we really need to be responsible about the things we do or say online. The effect is more than we think.
By “getting used to it” you mean developing a thick skin to it since it’s inevitable abi? Otherwise I’d like to say that in as much as we can’t change everything or everyone, we can work on ourselves as individuals. If the cancel culture can’t be solved one can at least not be part of it or if one will be part of it, it must be for the right reasons.
My point exactly, individual responsibility for our actions
Rejoice you always deliver. This is good.
Thank you dear
Well done dear. To be sincere, we are not in any perfect world/society. Our clime is worse hit by hypocrisy in governance – political, traditional, religious & institutional. Many are emotionally traumatised. The only means of self-expression for many is to engage in social media cancelling.
This has not been totally unhelpful because it has saved us some scandals & discouraged many from being the subject of such discourse. Thanks
So truee
Well this gave me an insight on the technical term, Cancel Culture. My thought is the social media community unlike the real word , is devoid critical analysing of news , once a post is dropped . We are quck to comment without even asking the reasonableness and validity of such post. I believe we all should think for even ten minutes before making a comment and cancelling someone. nice piece rejoice .
Thanks for this, we really need to think before making comments on social media
??
Rejoice, you are doing well.
Thank you Machi
Beautiful write up Rejoice
Please it’s not too late to Never conclude about people because of what others say about them,never inherit other people’s enemy,never use your children as weapons of war,never gang up with others to hate someone,never allow yourself to be used as a weapon in other people’s battles,never hate people just because they don’t behave like you, never judge people until you know the whole story or possibly hear from both sides,
I wish the whole world gets to read this.
Remember the 4 test by Rotary club
Let it guide your actions and reactions too
Words of wisdom here, thank you.
Cancel culture is an attack on freedom of speech. I for one believe that know authority should determine which speech or information should stand out in the society. Cancel culture is a very deadly tool in a democratic society and when people are being silenced from airing their views we tend to create an autocratic society and a very unhealthy trend where varying opinions are attacked instead of discussed. Social media Giants like Facebook, Twitter are also censoring information which is kind of like cancel culture where an organization deems it fit to be the sole authority of what information or news people should hear or see. I believe opinion varies, information varies and all should be tabled down for people to see and draw their opinion or conclusion. Instead of the other way round where an authority or organization determines what information people should get access to or what speech people should say.
Oh wow!
This is really nice Rejoice, I’ll try to be a little more open minded from now.
That’s the spirit.
Great one Rejoice
Thank you dear
Nice write up, Rejoice.
I digested this well?.
Most people on social use the opportunity to drag people they’ve been hating on and really waiting for the right public opportunity to vent.
They can be on your matter fr one week straight, every word they type can really mess with one’s head.
Swears ?