If you disapprove of something someone did you have the right to boycott them. If enough people agree with your position it could have a devastating impact on the person or business. It may be our truest form of democracy since it actually matters.
In recent years this has been called cancel culture and condemned by some. It used to just be public opinion. What changed is the use of social media to call for cancelling somebody, often over a claim about past actions. Take the recent allegation about the New York Governor. The allegations may or may not be true but there are already calls on Social media to cancel him. The next election will tell.
There are two thngs about cancel culture that are a bit worrisome. First, because of the Internet and social media, you can be pretty sure that your past will come out. So if you are or plan to be a public figure in the future or not, don't post stupid or improper things to the Internet, unless you just don't care.
If you need to sell yourself or a product, realize that negative social media could hurt you. You can't undo things from the past but you can try to mitigate, or not.
That is the other factor in cancel culture, some of the most vociferous people have little actual impact. People need followers on social media to be an influencer which is a way to actually make some money. So they will dig and report every juicy tidbit they can find.
It might matter or it might not. It depends on how much you need the public to support you. I get the impression that too much attention is paid to things like this.
If you get cancelled it means people won't support you because of something you did. That is their right, its called Democracy.
No comments:
Post a Comment