An Open Letter Against Cancel Culture

I don’t understand—nor do I wish to understand—the purpose of cancel culture, a practice where people put others under a microscope and hold them to standards they don’t use on themselves. 

People will always grow and change across time. Actions that were customary in 1977 are no longer practiced in 2021, not by a long shot. Yet people use current standards to shame others for their past mistakes. 

That’s ridiculous and hypocritical. It’s a short-sighted way of thinking that shows the unspoken dark side of modernism.

I acknowledge that some mistakes are wrong regardless of time. However, most of this mob-mentality canceling comes from people digging up and misconstruing old Tweets. They pin the Tweet as something it is not because they want to be part of a damaging trend.

And that’s not the worst of it.

The worst examples of canceling happen when a situation is just developing or there are limited facts surrounding an individual’s case.

Take actor Johnny Depp as an example. Actress Amber Heard, who was married to Depp for a year, filed for divorce in 2016 and claimed Depp beat her. The court of public opinion was swift in turning its back on Depp, regardless of the legality or legitimacy of her claims.

In 2018, Depp was dropped from The Pirates of the Caribbean, a series he had been a part of for about 15 years. Two years later, Warner Bros. cut ties with Depp—who had been working with the company for the Fantastic Beasts movie series since 2016—before his case was heard. 

It’s only now that leaked messages and recordings show that Amber Heard was manipulating the facts of the case. People didn’t know the full story when they acted but the damage was done. Johnny Depp’s career took a huge blow due to cancel culture. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are many powerful people who have acted wrong based on any standard and deserve to lose their positions in the media and in pop culture. But cancel culture is not helping the public get rid of them.

Acting impulsively in circumstances where we know next to nothing leads people to judge the wrong people and allows the true bad influences to stay untouched. And worst of all, it makes the real victims lose the careers they deserve.

It’s time we leave cancel culture behind. Let’s not be so quick to judge people and try to listen to their explanations. Social media will become a better place because of it.