Cancel culture is a widely discussed topic that I believe, at the fundamental level, has caused society to decline. We should be able to make and grow from mistakes instead of worrying if someone will know of our mistakes.

Cancel culture is defined as withdrawing support due to someone’s behavior or actions. Whether this cancellation is warranted or not is another topic. However, if someone is an abuser or has a history of bad actions, then yes, this person needs to be called out on it, and it needs to be addressed.

However, from my own approximations, nine times out of ten, most cancellations are over silly and immature reasons. This could range from a petty ex dredging up the past without context to make someone look bad and create a he said/she said battle of the wits.

Nevertheless, cancellation comes in many forms.

Being canceled is a genuine concern for many people, which is understandable. The idea of being canceled should discourage someone from making poor decisions. But what happens is that a society grows distrustful of each other due to the risk of someone taking words out of context and using them against you.

I know that whenever I write a text, I rephrase it a couple of times, making sure everything is as clear as possible. This is because I am worried that if something comes across the wrong way, someone won’t want to associate with me.

I think if someone has made a genuine mistake, instead of bringing it to social media and berating them, we should instead discuss it in person with them. If you were to talk with someone about the issues in private instead of going public, the issue could be resolved and the cancelation wouldn’t occur.

The only thing cancel culture does well is calling out genuine bad actors. Those who are horrible people who refuse to change, they’re the people who deserve to be canceled. They do not deserve to live a good life after harming others.
But it becomes a problem when immaturity is involved.
Trying to cancel someone you don’t like just because you don’t like them is selfish and immature. Unfortunately, many cancellations occur because people don’t like each other.

If you dredge up the past, you can never move forward. Our mistakes don’t define us; how we grow from our mistakes defines us. If we spotlight a mistake we made years ago, we never grow up and stay in that secluded, adolescent bubble.

This immaturity can be best seen in different forms of YouTuber drama. There are countless examples of these, such as the Pyrocynical drama.

This happened when the YouTuber Pyrocynical, real name Niall Murphy, was accused of grooming a minor, but what happened was that the person lied about their age, and Murphy had to admit that he was a furry, amongst other things.

Murphy was not flawed in what he did. He attempted to verify the age of the person he was messaging when he talked with them. But he did ask for their age, and countless times, they repeated that they were of adult age. The mistake was that the accuser lied and then made themselves the victim.

Murphy, and cases similar to his, are part of the reason why I believe cancel culture has gone too far. Murphy was able to skirt past being canceled, but there are still calls for him to be.

However, nobody is perfect, and nobody should be expected to be perfect.
However, one thing I think cancel culture has done correctly is allowing people to realize their mistakes and atone for them. I have atoned for my many mistakes while growing up, and now, I think that due to my experiences, I have grown to become a better person.

However, when it gets to the point where my white friend is afraid of saying Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name due to fear of being canceled for it, that is an indication it has gone too far.

I’m saying all of this to further cement the point that cancel culture has only created a generation of hyper-anxious people worried that every little thing they do will be documented and used against them during some sort of fight or argument.

We should cancel cancel culture becauseit has caused more harm than good. If someone makes a mistake, instead of immediately going to the public, we need to talk with the person and address it with them first.

Cancel culture has caused more distrust in our society, and it’s about time we cancel it.

Andrew Sarhan is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Baton Rouge, La.