JodyBuchanan
Active Member
There are so many stupid names for things out there, but I think this may take the cake. I always wonder who makes these things up. "Cancel Culture." Yes, that's what we're dealing with today. It's basically when a group takes notice of a person's or organization's stance or opinion on a particular topic and attempts to "cancel" them if it's something the group disagrees with. What's cancelling? Well, that's when the group at hand attempts to discourage support for the individual or organization themselves or their work. There's another phrase for cancel culture as well. It's "Callout Culture." This is when those on the internet disagree with something or someone and they "call them out" for it. For example, let's say a prominent actor voices his support for Donald Trump and says he plans to vote for him in the next election (you know, like 60 million other Americans did). A group of paid Twitter personalities and zombie accounts would find this objectionable and then go off to learn details of this actor's life and try to bankrupt him by threatening prospective employers and the like. Yes, this is the world we live in. This is what social media and the internet has led us to.
The question is, is cancel culture a good thing for individuals and society at large? I'll be taking the negative view for this issue in today's debate and I welcome any counter views.
Cancel Culture Equals Online Bullying - The Violence and Threats Can Actually Become Worse Than the Original Alleged Offense
It's all fine until it happens to you. I actually had the unfortunate experience of being targeted by an online lynch mob over a misunderstanding. I own and operate a food blog and apparently, a restaurant with the same name as my blog did something that the mob disapproved of. Well, the mob didn't like it, looked the name of the restaurant up, found me, and began posting horrible things on my Facebook page. They also emailed me threatening messages. And I didn't even have anything to do with it. I actually had no idea what was happening until I did a little research. That's when I decided to fight back and tell these people off to put them in their places.
Comedians have to put up with this sort of nonsense all the time. These folks have been telling jokes about different types of people since the dawn of time. I suppose it wasn't only until recently that a certain type of person began becoming offended. It seems that the type of person who gets offended by everything can't even walk down the road without having imaginary insults hurled at them. Everything bothers them. They have no ability to laugh at themselves, like the rest of us do on a daily basis. Again, they're offended by everything and nothing at the same time. Thin skinned, if you ask me. So anyway, it's no secret that comedians have been targeted by the mob. Many have lost their jobs and aren't asked anymore to do acts at any clubs. They've lost their livelihoods because of some jokes the powers that be have decided are no longer allowed. Freedom of speech? Not anymore. Sure, it's not illegal to say something these days, but you might just lose your source of income.
So, what is it exactly that offends people? What is it that you can't say? No one knows. It hasn't been determined yet. Does that sound dangerous? You bet it does. If I say that a rock is blue today, things might be fine. If I say it tomorrow though, some person on Twitter might hunt me down because of some perceived oppression and attempt to ruin my life. Do you think you're safe? I wouldn't count on it. If this is the type of culture that's permitted for some today, it just may be permitted for all tomorrow. So you better be careful of what you write online and protest for because those views, while seemingly popular may come back to bite you when they're not.
The worst part of the whole thing is that the mob rarely takes context into account when they choose to do their online bullying. Who is it that said the statement? What are they up against? What is their life like? Who cares. Let's rip em' to shreds. Let's make it so they can't support their family anymore. Do they have an illness? Are they handicapped? Do they have mental problems? Who cares. Let's take them down. Act now and ask questions later. The whole thing sort of reminds me of the prison industrial complex. Let's get em' in jail as opposed to finding out the complexities of their lives. Let's lock em' up instead of finding out their motivations, understanding them, and offering education and rehabilitation. What a terrible scene.
Do you think these attacks on so called offenders help at all? No, they don't. Oftentimes, once someone is attacked like this, they recoil into their little holes, never to be seen or heard from again. This is the very thing the mobs used to do in town square. They'd find witches and perceived criminals and burn them at the stake and hang them. Real nice. Most of the townsfolk had no idea who was being incriminated. They simply loved the feeling of being in power as the judge, jury, and executioner. Once a person has been targeted due to something they said or believed, much of their self worth dissipates. They lose their self-confidence. They may even stand up to fight, doubling down on their position and not learning anything from the situation.
There's this thing out there called mob mentality, where there's sort of a feedback loop. One person thinks one thing, they express that thought to someone else, and the same thing continues to happen until everyone has heard about it. Then, since everyone is in the know, they begin feeding the same types of thoughts back to each other until a feeding frenzy occurs. This is what happens online when someone or a group is targeted because of a perceived wrongdoing. The frenzy actually gets to heights where death threats occur and someone's life has been torn apart. Whatever the alleged crime, the punishment is oftentimes much worse.
This entire situation isn't sustainable. It's been said that individuals take on antisocial behaviors when they're hidden behind screens. They can't tell true right from true wrong. They're more likely to target someone when they can't see the consequences of that targeting up close, which can be destructive. They become the very cyber-bullying type of character so many of them proclaim to abhor. They can't connect their behavior to social norms, morals, ethics, proper punishments, sanctions, or much of anything else when they're so geographically distant from their target and when they're behind a screen. And this isn't even mentioning all of the PTSD that occurs when someone is cyber-bullied or engages in cyber-bullying. Yes, it's true. Both parties suffer from this type of activity.
The question is, is cancel culture a good thing for individuals and society at large? I'll be taking the negative view for this issue in today's debate and I welcome any counter views.
Cancel Culture Equals Online Bullying - The Violence and Threats Can Actually Become Worse Than the Original Alleged Offense
It's all fine until it happens to you. I actually had the unfortunate experience of being targeted by an online lynch mob over a misunderstanding. I own and operate a food blog and apparently, a restaurant with the same name as my blog did something that the mob disapproved of. Well, the mob didn't like it, looked the name of the restaurant up, found me, and began posting horrible things on my Facebook page. They also emailed me threatening messages. And I didn't even have anything to do with it. I actually had no idea what was happening until I did a little research. That's when I decided to fight back and tell these people off to put them in their places.
Comedians have to put up with this sort of nonsense all the time. These folks have been telling jokes about different types of people since the dawn of time. I suppose it wasn't only until recently that a certain type of person began becoming offended. It seems that the type of person who gets offended by everything can't even walk down the road without having imaginary insults hurled at them. Everything bothers them. They have no ability to laugh at themselves, like the rest of us do on a daily basis. Again, they're offended by everything and nothing at the same time. Thin skinned, if you ask me. So anyway, it's no secret that comedians have been targeted by the mob. Many have lost their jobs and aren't asked anymore to do acts at any clubs. They've lost their livelihoods because of some jokes the powers that be have decided are no longer allowed. Freedom of speech? Not anymore. Sure, it's not illegal to say something these days, but you might just lose your source of income.
So, what is it exactly that offends people? What is it that you can't say? No one knows. It hasn't been determined yet. Does that sound dangerous? You bet it does. If I say that a rock is blue today, things might be fine. If I say it tomorrow though, some person on Twitter might hunt me down because of some perceived oppression and attempt to ruin my life. Do you think you're safe? I wouldn't count on it. If this is the type of culture that's permitted for some today, it just may be permitted for all tomorrow. So you better be careful of what you write online and protest for because those views, while seemingly popular may come back to bite you when they're not.
The worst part of the whole thing is that the mob rarely takes context into account when they choose to do their online bullying. Who is it that said the statement? What are they up against? What is their life like? Who cares. Let's rip em' to shreds. Let's make it so they can't support their family anymore. Do they have an illness? Are they handicapped? Do they have mental problems? Who cares. Let's take them down. Act now and ask questions later. The whole thing sort of reminds me of the prison industrial complex. Let's get em' in jail as opposed to finding out the complexities of their lives. Let's lock em' up instead of finding out their motivations, understanding them, and offering education and rehabilitation. What a terrible scene.
Do you think these attacks on so called offenders help at all? No, they don't. Oftentimes, once someone is attacked like this, they recoil into their little holes, never to be seen or heard from again. This is the very thing the mobs used to do in town square. They'd find witches and perceived criminals and burn them at the stake and hang them. Real nice. Most of the townsfolk had no idea who was being incriminated. They simply loved the feeling of being in power as the judge, jury, and executioner. Once a person has been targeted due to something they said or believed, much of their self worth dissipates. They lose their self-confidence. They may even stand up to fight, doubling down on their position and not learning anything from the situation.
There's this thing out there called mob mentality, where there's sort of a feedback loop. One person thinks one thing, they express that thought to someone else, and the same thing continues to happen until everyone has heard about it. Then, since everyone is in the know, they begin feeding the same types of thoughts back to each other until a feeding frenzy occurs. This is what happens online when someone or a group is targeted because of a perceived wrongdoing. The frenzy actually gets to heights where death threats occur and someone's life has been torn apart. Whatever the alleged crime, the punishment is oftentimes much worse.
This entire situation isn't sustainable. It's been said that individuals take on antisocial behaviors when they're hidden behind screens. They can't tell true right from true wrong. They're more likely to target someone when they can't see the consequences of that targeting up close, which can be destructive. They become the very cyber-bullying type of character so many of them proclaim to abhor. They can't connect their behavior to social norms, morals, ethics, proper punishments, sanctions, or much of anything else when they're so geographically distant from their target and when they're behind a screen. And this isn't even mentioning all of the PTSD that occurs when someone is cyber-bullied or engages in cyber-bullying. Yes, it's true. Both parties suffer from this type of activity.