Cancel culture: When the Internet becomes the judge, jury and executioner.

Someone does something terrible.
Really terrible.
With video evidence and clear proof.
The person is guilty. Yes, no doubt.

And the internet does what the internet does best by canceling the person.

Account gone.
Sometimes job gone.
And maybe endorsements gone.
Family harassed and death threats in his DM.

We all clap.
Justice served, right?

But wait. Let's think logically and critically.

Is it really justice?
Or is it just revenge wearing the clothes of justice?

This is the question I have been wrestling with.

Yes, I agree that he did something terrible. But who gave the online people power to punish?

We have courts for a reason.
We have laws for a reason.
We have appropriate authorities for a reason.

Because justice without process is not justice.
It is mob action. Jungle Justice.

When someone commits a crime, the law says,
you will pay for it,
you will go to prison,
you will pay a fine,
you will face the consequences.
The system punishes you ad that is the right way to go.

But cancel culture says.
That is not enough.
We will punish you again and again.
In fact, forever.

We will make sure you never work again. We will make sure your children are bullied in school.
We will make sure everywhere you go, your name is shame and so on...

Tell me, at what point does punishment become persecution?

The double punishment problem is what troubles me the most.

If a man steals, the law jails him for some years.
He comes out after some years.
Has he paid his debt?

According to the law, yes.

But according to cancel culture, no.
We will still cancel him for some years later. We will still dig up that tweet.
We will still make sure that Internet never forgets.

So we are creating a world where people pay the legal price and the internet price. Two punishments for one crime.

And I asked, is that fair?

If we believe in law, we must allow the law to do its work.
If the law is not enough, then let's fix the law.
But we cannot become a second law ourselves.

The dangerous part we don't see is that today we are canceling someone who is truly guilty.
So it feels good and it feels right.

But who decides tomorrow who is guilty?

Cancel culture has no court.
No evidence table.
No defense lawyer.
No appeal.

It only has anger and anger is a terrible judge.

Today we cancel a thief because we have video.
Tomorrow we cancel a man because someone accused him with no proof.
Next tomorrow we cancel a woman because her opinion offended us.

Let's ask ourselves.
Where does it stop?
Who controls it?

When you give the mob the right to punish the guilty, you also give them the right to punish the innocent when the mob is wrong.

What should we do instead?

I am not saying we should keep quiet when someone does something terrible.
No.

Call it out.
Speak up.
Report to the right authority.
Let the evidence speak.
Support the victim.

But leave punishment to those who have the right to punish.

Expose, don't execute.
Report, don't ruin.
Demand justice, don't become injustice.

Let the court jail him.
Let the company fire him if they want.
Let the law do its job.

But we should not add a lifetime of digital torture on top of a legal sentence and call it justice. It's wrong.

Because if we do, we are not better than the person we are canceling.
We are just doing a different kind of harm.

In my conclusion.
If someone does something terrible, they should face the consequences.
Full stop.

But cancel culture as we know it today is not consequences. It is endless cruelty.

A person can be guilty and still be human.
A person can pay for their crime without us destroying their entire existence forever.

Justice should correct.
Cancel culture only crushes.

And if we continue like this, one day, when the same internet that you used to cancel others comes for you and it may come for all of us, because none of us is perfect, you will understand why punishment must be left for the appropriate authority, not the angry crowd.

Say no to cancel culture.
Say no to jungle Justice.

Let the law do their job.