Cancel Culture is an Unnecessary Mess
By: Madison Farnsworth
Opinion Editor
Being a celebrity is not always about the glitz and glam, it can turn into an unnecessary bloodbath full of hurt emotions and broken trust.
Sometimes it can turn your entire life upside down, especially if you trip up and make a mistake. If that happens then that could lead to your entire career going down the drain. It means you are officially cancelled.
Everybody makes mistakes and with the rise of social media your mistakes can be immortalized forever on the internet. For celebrities this is magnified by the fact that thousands of people are watching them at all time, so things they said a decade ago may come back and haunt them for future years to come
Most of the time when a celebrity gets “cancelled” it is because another celebrity who was privately feuding with them and made the bright decision to bring it into the spotlight. Then all hell breaks loose between the two celebrities and their own loyal, dedicated fans start fights on Twitter and Instagram.
Some celebrities have done things that are truly unforgivable, and those people deserve to lose their careers. But there has become a culture of cancelling celebrities’ careers over something that ends up getting blown out of proportion and explodes in their faces.
In some cases, cancel culture acts as a kind of social justice to celebrities overwhelmed with their own power.
A recent example of this is New York based comedian Louie C.K., Known for his offensive and vulnerable stand up bits and Emmy Award winning T.V. show on the F.X. channel.
His claim to fame was understandably cut short when 5 women made sexual allegations against him back in 2017. His most common offense was masturbating in front of them, even without permission. Ever since this leaked into the public eye, Louie is now perceived as the antithesis of his puppy-dog eyed persona that people once loved and adored him for.
There have been times where a celebrity has been able to bounce back and able to put whatever controversy they were dealing with behind them. And it usually works out for them for some time, until they get re-cancelled.
That goes to show that cancel culture does not usually end up working out. Either the celebrity will regain all their popularity before shit hit the fan or the celebrity in question did not learn from their mistakes the first time and managed to mess up all over again.
Cancel culture is very stupid. When someone makes a small mistake, it gets blown out of proportion and people “officially” cancel the celebrities. This can be really harmful to the ones who just made simple mistakes they quickly recover from but get haunted by it for the rest of their lives.
It is infuriating how when an innocent celebrity makes a small mistake we keep bringing it up and refuse to let it die, but when politicians and jackass celebrities do horrible things, we turn a blind eye or try to explain why they are actually a good person.
If we hold social media celebrities accountable for their actions, then we have to hold politicians accountable for their actions. Cancel culture needs to go, but if we cannot get rid of it, then we need to include everyone when it comes to “cancelling.”
On social media, we do see celebrities making small unfortunate mistakes that can possibly make or break the rest of their careers.
What often comes next is a large retaliation from the fan base, other creators, or onlookers in general. This, in of itself, is not a bad thing.
People should speak up and be adamant when they think a wrong has been made. The issue, often, is what comes next.
If people feel the need to cancel celebrities and possibly ruin their careers or even their livelihood, then maybe it’s time to rethink how we, the general public, respond and react to different celebrity controversies, no matter how big or small they happen to be.
Otherwise innocent people need to stop having their careers be dangled over their heads. They no longer deserve this type of treatment.
It’s okay to let celebrities move on with their lives and career; it’s absolutely necessary for both parties.
Holding someone accountable longer then needed completely drags out the situation.
It is a nasty culture that has sprung up within the past decade and toxicity of it needs to die.
