Cancel me, I dare you
March 4, 2020
You’re canceled. These two words are used by my friends after I say a joke that I maybe shouldn’t say, say something that is supposed to be funny but isn’t, or when I almost hit another car while driving.
Cancel culture can be best defined as ending someone’s career and all future endeavors forever and ever and ever because of something bad they said or did. This term, which is most popular with internet celebrities, usually leads to unwarranted hate towards people trying to live their lives and grow as individuals.
That being said, there are definitely times when celebrities should be “canceled.” Completely horrible and racist remarks made by trashy YouTube/TikTok stars or Camila Cabello should have us question these clout-chasers’ morals.
However, besides these few instances, why should we end someone’s career for something mildly bad that they did?
This past summer, James Charles was canceled for his beef with other YouTuber personality Tati Westbrook. The two had personal issues that I don’t care about, and personal issues between two celebrities isn’t a reason to end their careers. And guess what?
James Charles isn’t “canceled” anymore.
How are people expected to grow as humans if every remark they make could potentially end their career? We as a society should be more forgiving of what others do unless it’s really, really bad and completely avoidable (Camila).
But because of cancel culture, we deny people the right to grow as individuals. Would you want to be canceled for bullying the weird kid in third grade or wearing those hideous UGG boots with the bows on them in 2012?
No. We all make mistakes. We all live and learn.
Personally, I think if we examined the lives of everyone then there would be some reason to cancel them. My Blueprint articles could be obnoxious to some. I know that waiting in the senior lot for two hours Monday night trying to shoot my senior assassin target could have been annoying for someone trying to take my parking spot.
Did I get canceled though? Hopefully not— and if so — let me learn from my mistakes.
Thirteen-year-olds on YouTube and TikTok are people too. Why shouldn’t we give them the opportunity to make mistakes and continue to grow as individuals?
Do you really want to be canceled for your horrible parking job in the church lot at school or for your Instagram selfie from 2013 with your hideous braces that were color-coordinated with the next upcoming holiday?
I hope not. So, when judging the wannabe-famous, keep in mind they are human too.
Or how about we re-examine cancelling people, period! When is enough enough? When a radio or TV personality you have fundamental disagreements with overdoses from drug use? When a professional athlete ends their life from depression? When a “cancelled” school mate comes to class with a gun? Cancel culture is a tool of the disenfranchised to raise their voice high enough to be heard, and for that reason it’s roots are not bad. But the fact is that, whatever it once was, it no longer is. When those disenfranchised youths get a taste of the power of their combined opinions on social media, they fail to realize they are engaging in the same cyber bullying that they have likely suffered themselves for being “different”. When I was in high school, if you were bullied, you started a rock band and wrote hate songs about your tormentors. In the bad cases, kids who didn’t find healthy outlets for their rage at their peers got in to drugs, or self harm, or in the VERY extreme cases, got in to their parents’ gun safe and went on a mass shooting spree. So now that cancel culture is more cyber bullying than it is social controls on racism, sexism, and bigotry….don’t you agree that it’s time for it to end?