Cancel Culture

As a young kid, my parents never talked to me about the dangers or precautions I should be using when I was on the internet. As an adult now, I assume it was because I was never into social media or very interested in using computers other than to play games. As I got older and had friends that were into using social networks to communicate with friends, family, and even strangers. I was introduced to a side of social media that I had never seen and didn’t want to be apart of. Of course, this was in 2010 and it is now 2020, I thought that people in 2010 were bold enough to show and say anything to a group of young girls because they could cover their cameras, hide behind their screens and then turn their computer off and go to bed like nothing ever happened but in 2020 the things people have said and posted are all being exposed for everyone to see.

After reading and analyzing Carson Kinds case study, my points on what happened 10 years ago are extremely accurate. Carson King knew that what he was posting online was hateful and racist but he still felt that he needed to share his opinions. The only ethical problem I see about cancel culture is that we could be permitting someone from using the right to free speech. “Canceling someone is an attempt to stifle their free speech rights. Tweeting against others in anger begets more anger and can lead to more serious practices such as bullying.” (Mintz, 2019). The problem I have with this quote is that people have the right to free speech but does that include hate speech? Trying to stifle hate speech and the people that condone it should be supported.

I believe that cancel culture is socially just because there is a degree of cancellation severity that is placed upon the person who has committed an offense that is worth being canceled over. Although, I think that an apology aids in the severity of being canceled. I think that when the wrongdoer waits years and only makes it a point to apologize because their reputation is now being tarnished, then the apology seems fabricated. Although an additional contribution to a charity would have pleased some people and could have abetted in making King's public cancellation less sever. I would assume that the damage from the racist tweet has already caused as much damage as they would and King trying to present more money to the charity would only make the community feel as though money would excuse his past. I also don’t think Aaron Calvin did anything wrong by exposing the Kings past comments. King knew that he had made those comments visible for anyone to see by posting them on social media. I also believe that Aaron Calvin did the right thing because he Carson King may have supporters from the group of people he had made racist comments about and that group of people deserve to know who they are supporting.

I don’t think cancel culture punishments and the court system punishments have many qualities that are equivalent to each other but there are elements that could be considered the same. In addition to this, the judicial system presents harsh punishments but sometimes they only deliver a slap on the wrist for situations that are in need of a harsher punishment. There are many cases of celebrities who have taken their racist remarks to extremes but still have their careers, livelihood and have an active fan base that doesn’t care about their past.

References

Mintz, S. (2019, December 16). Ethics and the Cancel Culture. Retrieved September 14, 2020, from https://www.ethicssage.com/2019/12/ethics-and-the-cancel-culture.html