The Myth of Cancel Culture
The First Amendment protects hate speech because it leads to a more tolerant society. People who use offensive speech are held accountable by other members of society and often suffer major consequences for their actions. It sets a public example of what’s right and wrong, teaching a valuable lesson about acceptable speech.
With modern social media, hateful speech does not go unnoticed. When it is discovered that a person has said something offensive, others will ostracize them and attempt to take away their platform. This sequence of events has recently been given the nickname “cancel culture.” The term started to become mainstream around 2018. Personally, I think it is a bit silly. We should encourage holding people accountable for their actions instead of demonizing it. How else will people learn? Furthermore, how often do powerful, famous people actually stay “canceled?”
For example, in 2017 a popular YouTuber under the name PewDiePie came under fire for using a racial slur on one of his livestreams. That same year he paid two men to hold up a sign that read “death to all Jews.” In 2018 he was directing traffic to an anti-Semitic YouTube channel by promoting a video featuring a racial slur and a white supremacist conspiracy theory. At the time, his subscriber count was 78 million. As for punishment, he lost a deal with YouTube and Disney, however his popular status and YouTube channel remain. As of January 2024, he is still one of the most-subscribed individuals on YouTube with over 111 million subscribers. PewDiePie makes an estimated two million dollars in monthly revenue from his channel alone, making him the one of highest earners on YouTube.
While the First Amendment protects hate speech, social media platforms do not. These companies have the ability to remove users from their platforms as they see fit, which they often utilize. It is not irrational for celebrities or popular creators to be held to certain standards. It is not unreasonable for people choose not to support someone because of their actions. Still, calling someone out on social media does not always mean they should be (or will be) “canceled.”
Did PewDiePie, or anyone affected by “cancel culture,” really learn their lesson? Or do they scrape together an apology after facing backlash simply to preserve their income, power, and status? Either way, the public seems to forgive these controversial figures pretty quickly. Whether or not “cancel culture” is effective, it’s important that we as a society call out bad behavior to set an example for others.
