[bloodtroth]

Cancel culture and why it's toxic

I've been thinking recently about my relationship with cancel/outrage culture and why I do not participate in it.

So, here are a few points:

1. It's not helpful. All it does is spread negativity and toxic atmosphere that allows for clickbait articles to spread like wildfire, making people cancel people who do not even deserve it. This is especially true nowadays because people never seem to read past the headlines and look further into various allegations against public figures.

2. It gives far right people more ammunition to their "leftists are the real oppressors" narrative and brings them more attention and sympathy.

3. For people who are not far-right, who only happen to say something "problematic" either accidentally or from lack of education, harassing and cancelling them drives them further away from leftists spaces. When people are attacked, they have a tendency to get defensive, and when people get defensive they might be tempted to hold onto their misconceptions even tighter.

4. Sending people death threats or using abusive language is inherently toxic and I really would like to believe I don't need to explain why.

5. Sometimes in the internet, wires get mixed, and innocent people will be attacked based on a misunderstanding. It's not always easy to get your message across the way you wanted to, and people make mistakes all the time.

6. It doesn't allow for people to make mistakes and grow from them. Digging up problematic tweets from 20 billion years ago and then bringing them up over and over again is frankly sad. Everyone has said problematic stuff during their lifetime, the only difference between you and your idols is that their problematic bs is there for all the world to see. None of us would look good if someone made a list of all the problematic shit we've done.

7. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but being constantly negative is not good for you. There have been studies made about this; Google them if you don't believe me. Always assuming that people do things out of maliciousness is a sad way to view to world, and I, for one, would prefer always assuming that people have good intentions, but that they sometimes stumble and get misled.

I truly believe this world can become a better place, but it will not happen by shouting at each other. Education, empathy and, most of all, kindness; those are the three values I live by, and I hope more people would choose them too.