#Canceled

If you’ve existed in the online world of social media platforms, chat forums and “woke” media, you’ve undoubtedly come face-to-face with the phenomena that has been dubbed “Cancel Culture.”
While it is hardly a new-fangled practice, I have only seen the wordage used to describe the act in recent years - typically when referencing the way society rises up against a celebrity or public figure in order to “cancel” them and end their career in one fell blow.
Done correctly, ‘Cancel Culture’ is the movement of the people - it takes place when enough people look at the wrongdoings or misdeeds of another human being and hold them accountable in the court of public opinion.
A recent example of well-done Cancel Culture can be found with Jesse Smollett - the Empire star who staged an attack on himself, and told police that his attackers yelled racial and homophobic slurs and "poured an unknown chemical substance" onto him. It was later discovered that Smollett had potentially staged the attack in order to make himself appear to be the victim of a hate crime, and while the charges against Smollett were eventually dropped, the court of public opinion held him accountable.
Cancel Culture saw Smollett’s character be cut from the Empire tv show, and the character’s fame has declined significantly as a result of his misdeed.
Despite the new name, Cancel Culture has been around for as long as people have held opinions on each other (since the beginning of time) and when used as a resource, ‘canceling’ people in the public’s opinion court can result in a sort of “Street Justice” that is used to act whenever courtroom justice cannot.
Cancel Culture does, however, have a dark and tangled side.
Much like a knife, ‘canceling’ someone or something can be used as a tool to cut away the bad... or a weapon to harm the innocent.
Robert Henderson, a writer as well as a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, called Cancel Culture a “reliable way to achieve upward mobility, establish social connection, and identify allies and enemies by isolating people who have violated ideological rules about race or gender.”
Henderson says in his article, “The Dangers of Cancel Culture Are Distant and Abstract,” that the phrase is suggestive. “We can cancel Netflix subscriptions or smartphone services, so why not cancel human beings through reputation destruction and social exile?” asks Henderson.
Henderson provides an example of a Yale professor who was ‘canceled’ by her students after encouraging her students to share cultural experiences, rather than automatically cry “cultural appropriation” anytime they came face-to-face with culturally-themed Halloween costumes.
“She encouraged students to speak with each other if they found someone’s costume distasteful or offensive,” wrote Henderson.
The professor’s suggestions were not taken kindly and her students ultimately forced her to resign her position due to their efforts to socially exile and destroy her previously crisp reputation.
In the right hands, this culture of cancellation is a tool to hold other human beings accountable – but in the wrong hands, it is a weapon to weed out anything that the cancelers don’t agree with.
It can be dangerous to expect everyone else to completely agree with our world view and religious choices. It can be even more dangerous to cut ties with anyone who differs in those views and beliefs. And it can be detrimental to our society to form together as a mob and ‘cancel’ anyone who stands apart from us.
“People enjoy coming together against a perpetrator,” writes Henderson. Choosing to wield the canceling knife against someone else is a quick way to make friends and find a community – but at what cost?
Diversity of opinion and religion is what makes our communities rich and thriving – and the blade of Cancel Culture can even be found locally, in Monticello’s small-town communities.
Recently, the community has been divided into two camps of opinion on a matter that will inevitably impact both groups. A line has been drawn and both sides hold fast to the flag of opinion which waves above their heads.
The danger of small-town Cancel Culture is that, at its core, it impacts our neighbors, friends and families. No longer is the canceling knife being dug into the back of a far-away celebrity or multi-millionaire who stepped into trouble and must now face the public opinion’s courtroom.
When we oppose not just views and opinions, but the people who hold them as well – and then exclude those who speak in favor of things we ourselves do not favor, we build walls and burn bridges within our own neighborhoods.
Your neighbor is pro-toll road... and you are not. So the morning’s greetings are a little less pleasant when you check your mail this morning and see him walking his dog.
The family who sits beside you in church voted for a candidate you lobbied to oppose – is this grounds for breaking contact?
A local public figure supports an issue that you do not – so is this worth socially banishing and punishing this person?
Before brandishing the knife, meet the eyes of your fellow man – the cancelation may steal more than your neighbor’s social standing. It may steal the richness of your community as well.