Cancel culture has been a toxic ongoing issue for years affecting celebrities, influencers and public figures. Cancel culture refers to people who revoke their support of someone or something for doing or saying something offensive. It typically starts on social media when people see an offense someone does or has done in the past or present. Cancel culture in today’s society is being taken too far and can spread to boycotting an entire company.

Cancel culture can be considered as publicly shaming someone for something they did or have done wrong. The public doesn’t just simply announce they no longer support someone, they will also insult or threaten the person in question no matter the extremity of their mistake. Considering this culture takes place over social media, what the guilty party has done can be exaggerated. People should be held accountable for what they do, but they shouldn’t be rejected from all of society for it. Society also has a right to know what public figures have done, then should form their opinion of said party from there.

For people who have done things wrong in the past, times were different in the past than they are now. “Times were different” is an excuse that many use to get out of taking responsibility, but it is the truth in some cases. Some things were more easily accepted back when people committed the action, a good example of this would be racism. That doesn’t mean racism is at all acceptable, but sadly, it was more widely accepted by a large portion of society years ago. Even when it comes to racism, the severity still matters when making a judgement on what the guilty party had done years ago. Nevertheless, some people may deserve what comes back to haunt them. If someone has committed a horrible crime in the past or present, they may deserve what cancel culture does to them, especially if that crime negatively affected others in traumatizing ways.

Cancel culture in general is not beneficial, being that it doesn’t allow people who make mistakes to grow and change from those mistakes. Everyone alive makes mistakes constantly whether they know it or not. Many people don’t take responsibility for said mistakes even if they’re pointed out to them. Typically when mistakes are pointed out it’s more in an accusatory way rather than used in a way to help teach the person the correct way to do things. Cancel culture can be dehumanizing in a way. If everyone makes mistakes, why treat public figures differently? They have more responsibilities than typical people, but they’re still normal human beings. They can’t be treated as if they aren’t capable of making mistakes, considering that is an impossible achievement.

It is important for everyone to achieve what they want and live up to their full potential, and cancel culture doesn’t make that possible for everyone. It can ruin the life of anyone from a single mistake they’ve made in the past. Cancel culture is too controlling within our society, as it sets unrealistic expectations upon people and it is used to harm rather than to help others.