Categories: Modern / Current Culture

Post #42 Never Make One Mistake. ?

I’ve been curious about cancel culture [“c.c.” in this post] for some time. Took me longer (was harder) than usual this week, to write even these beginner thoughts & questions. As I work to make sense of the world around us. After some research, I reflect that “they” are often watching; & I think:

little wonder if there’s confusion about c.c.; appears it has evolved & changed some over the past decade;
it’s quite a complex topic;
some think it’s (at least partly) positive; many think it’s (mostly) negative. With case-by-case circumstances, c.c. may be experienced along a spectrum; because
it has been described along a scale from mild to harsh, from: calling out, expressing group disapproval (sometimes more harshly than the original mistake); & then the extreme of social bullying c.c.;
it’s probably best not practised by psychology amateurs; & it perhaps usually is. Should amateurs decide if someone no longer (socially) exists?
a 2020 poll of (American) voters noted “a majority (55%) of voters 18 to 34 years old saying they have taken part in cancel culture”. It seems they reconciled c.c. with their preferences for an inclusive society?

Is it only for Really Big mistakes? Perhaps those practising it believe that they will never make one mistake, life long. The first humans in history to never make a mistake?

Per Wikipedia, an open letter about c.c. was signed (~2020) by 153 notables/public figures & then published, setting out arguments against “an intolerance of opposing views, [against] a vogue for public shaming & ostracism, & [against] the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty”.

Most may think that there can be more kind (& more appropriate) responses.

If we offer no help and/or no hope of earning back a place in society, we may create an “us” & a “them”. Humans cut out of society yet still with us. If no teaching of a better way nor human compassion to speak of; has this way ever been totally successful?

Kellie

Kellie tries to improve quality of life, while lowering cost & simplifying ['mostly: let's Not do expensive rocket science every day']. So: high quality @ lower cost & simplified when possible. Some experiments work better than others; I plan to share how the experiments go in my blog(s).