“There’s no such thing as “cancel culture”. It’s “consequence culture” and demands more than an apology for transgressions of harm. “Consequence culture” aims to deplatform a person’s social capital until they make meaningful change.” – Annastacia Dickerson
That is quite the provocative quote, one with which I generally agree. While I’m not usually a big fan of cancel culture, I do believe in consequence culture – and sometimes the consequence of repeated offenses is cancellation. My own take on it is that I fully believe in personal cancellation, rather than a blanketed and enforced cancellation that becomes a public witch-hunt. It happened recently with someone who used to consider me a friend. This person has always been somewhat problematic with what she posts and how she posts things, positing controversial topics as click-bait, then waiting for the ensuing fights and arguments and wondering why such a flare-up resulted from her deliberate gaslighting.
While I’ve known her for years, it finally became too annoying (her gross and public mischaracterization of what happened between us was the final straw), so I blocked her on all social media. She was bringing nothing of value to my online life, her writing has never been anything that particularly impressed me, and the people she was amplifying in her social media posts were often ghastly. Ridding my own timelines of such ghastliness was a personal choice, and my own little cancellation of her was a decision she likely hasn’t even noticed.
That said, I never told anyone else not to follow her. I never asked anyone to stop feeding into what I considered pointless gaslighting. I never even suggested that anyone take a stance on the division between us. Because that aspect of cancel culture – when you try to enforce your own stance upon others – is not my style.
My personal cancellation of this person didn’t involve harming her in any way, or cajoling others into jumping on the bandwagon of attacking her (though several people did reach out and share similar stories of their own), it was a simple and effective way of removing what had become a negative and toxic voice from my own social media feeds. Everyone else is still free to enjoy what she does and how she does it, I just don’t want to see it on my timelines anymore.
It’s part of an ongoing effort to turn my social media time and engagement into a space reserved for things and people I find beautiful, talented, genuine and inspiring. If that means canceling someone who no longer embodies any of those things (personal opinion only, of course, as personal opinion is a beautiful thing) then the consequence of cancellation in this case is one that I absolutely support.
{PS – I’ll probably be cancelled next week.}
