Cancel Culture: Accountability or Punishment?
Cancel culture is one of the most common act we see around the world today, especially over the internet and this can go on to affect whoever was cancelled in real life, be it their business, career or personal life, safety and privacy. But then we all need to be very careful when dealing with such a situation because the truth is many of us have confuse holding someone accountable with punishing someone, they are two different things entirely and below I'll share my take on the subject matter and other related things, so without further ado, let's get to it.
The truth is that I understand those who indulge in cancel culture are not please with a terrible act someone as committed and they felt canceling the person is the best way to punish them and as well prevent others for falling victim of theirs. But the truth is while I understand that another who does anything criminal must face the consequences of their actions, still I don't think those punishment should come from ordinary people on the street or on the internet. Instead such people should be made to face that consequences through the legal channel. That someone has done something bad doesn't give anyone the right to start harassing them online or physically, neither does it give them privilege to threaten or expose their private information with the aim of destroying their lives further than what the law has already provided through the appropriate consequences allocated of their actions.
In the same vain, I'll still like to favour the other angle by making it known that not all form of cancellation actually means we're taking the law into our hands, because the truth is that as individuals we've the right to support, follow or collaborate with anyone of our choices. What matters is for us to do our thing without tarnishing the persons image further from what is already out there. Take for instance, some organisation can decide not to work with an individual because of their history or conduct, doing that is understandable and isn't the same thing as the physical or emotional damage that are outside the law we melt on people all in the name of cancellation.
I believe the real problem and den of troubles all begins when we turn social media platforms to the courtyard and we ourselves begins to play the role of lawyer and judge over the matter. It's fine if you expose wrongdoings or bring attention of cases to the internet, just as some content creators does, for example Verydarkblackman, we've seen how some of these has helped people get justice. However as much as we praise this , we mustn't forget that fake and unverified news, information and allegations can also be spread through the same medium, so we must be careful and approach matters with our sense so we won't get tangled in something that's beyond, whike trying to play judge.
The best way to go is to let the law take it cause, even when someone is guilty, we shouldn't be swift in dishing out punishment, if we do that , we are no different from those who engage in judge justice on the streets, what should be our concern is if justice is meant to bring about accountability or rehabilitate the criminal or safeguard our society from such things again. Many peoples definitions of justice instead is to make the person suffer just because we're angry or ain't please with their act. We are human and we must follow the rule of law, not following it and jumping into the cancel culture is more or like we doing the same thing we're against, justice is good and everyone wants it, but it shouldn't be gotten in revenge.
Overall, all I'm Saying is that it's okay to condemn wrongdoing, what we shouldn't do is become abusive, harrassive while doing that, how we pursue justice matters alot and we shouldn't just blindly chase it just to satisfy our ego, desire, or definition of justice, we should instead let the law take it cause, rather than taking the law into our own hands.
All photos are generated using ChatGpt.
