Since the sad, awful news broke the internet of the passing of George Floyd, Cancel Culture is more prominent than it ever was.
Whilst here at Comic Universe, we stand with the Black Lives Matter movement, and fully accept there is a need for change, equality, and for justice to be served correctly.
Where we go the wrong way is exactly this, Cancel Culture. It’s toxic. I’m the first to admit that it’s extremely awful.
These people stand for equality, and for change. They forget for the most part when they’re slamming said actors or whatever, they’re fully delving into bullying. It’s highly hypocritical.
Hartley Sawyer saw the full effects of the movement and was consequently fired from his role on the CW show, The Flash. He was fired for controversial tweets so many years ago.
My issue with this is that PEOPLE CHANGE. We’re human beings, we’re allowed to make mistakes, that’s what makes us grow as people. I don’t condone the tweets Hartley put out, but I don’t believe he should have lost his job over it either.
People have different senses of humour, some are darker than others and it just is what it is. People shouldn’t have to be afraid of putting out a joke 8 years ago for it to come back to bite them, because a movement of online bullies force the producers into taking action.
Zoe Saldana recently came out in tears, apologising for her role in Nina. Another victim of the movement, but she shouldn’t have to apologise for acting. Her job is literally to play another person.
Understandably there are times Cancel Culture plays a perfect role, take, for example, R Kelly. This was fully deserved, and I stood with the internet on that. However, for old tweets that were just a joke shouldn’t be subject to harassment, bullying and outright online shaming because of it.
Even comedians who have their own style of comedy which is mostly loved are scared of what content they put out now. We shouldn’t have to live in a world like this. I get it, sometimes people do something that’s simply unforgivable, and need to be mobbed from the public domain, but can we really sit back and say Hartley’s tweets, James Gunn’s tweets, Zoe’s role and say these are UNFORGIVEABLE? Can we?
Can we really sit back and say they deserve to be unemployed? That’s what we need to look at. Cancel Culture recently tried to go after Danielle Panabaker because they thought she had a problem with Candice Patton. Explaining Danielle was bullying Candice and stepping over her.
Of course, nothing came of it, why? Because this particular movement was based on accusations and no actual proof to back it up?
Again, my problem is exactly that. Accusations. They forget whilst the movement failed with Danielle (thankfully), they forget the repercussions these accusations have. Danielle could have easily lost her job due to a mob but in reality, Danielle and Candice are said to be quite close. So, why bother?
So, that’s it. When we look to cancel people, we need to really sit back and think, do they deserve to lose their job? If so, then fine, do as you must. But if you sit back and think, “well, it’s just a mistake, this person has changed and grown”, then let it go.
