Has the cancel culture been taken too far by self-righteous individuals, turning it into a toxic tool used to indiscriminately punish any whose ideas and opinions deviate from their self-defined norms"
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Throughout history societies have always punished those who behaved differently or expressed views outside of their social norms. Consider the Salem witch trials, the social uproar in response to Darwin?s theory of evolution, or even the condemnation of homosexuals throughout history. These effectively form the roots of what we know as cancel culture. In its modern incarnation, cancel culture doesn?t have a clearly stated definition. Vox for example, defines it as ?a trend of communal calls to boycott a celebrity whose offensive behaviour is perceived as going too far?. Another definition was used in an open letter published in Harper?s magazine and referred to cancel culture as an “intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.” What both pieces had in common was the increasing toxicity of this culture, once seen as way for ordinary folks to keep celebrities and politicians accountable for their actions. Although its origins were undoubtedly born out of a global desire for cultural and social sensitivity, the in...