The True Toxicity of Cancel Culture

Apr 19, 2021

"She's turned the villain to the victim"
-Ice Nine Kills,
"Tess-Timony"

Defining "Cancel"

Cancel culture is a dangerous pandemic -- albeit a different kind -- spreading around the world. To be "canceled" is a silly slang term to describe the social media backlash against an individual or group, usually public figures, who have done something generally considered to be unacceptable by public perception. Considering some of the absurd, hateful, and, frankly, stupid actions of influencers and celebrities, getting "canceled" usually occurs only in response to the most egregious and intolerable actions, like a pattern of homophobic behavior or criminal activity.

3 Main Kinds of Cancel Culture

The "boo-hoo everybody hates me because I did something wrong in the past and I refuse to take responsibility for my actions" people
The victims of overblown persecution
The ones the public doesn't see

The Third Kind

This is the fight to maintain the status quo, even if the status quo deserves to be canceled forever. In terms of veganism, there are many forms this takes, though the most blatant is the general response the average person has to vegans. Even if they don't make fun of us outright, vegans are one of the most negatively perceived groups of people, and animal agriculture, others who profit from it, and those who actively consume it are in no hurry to extend an olive branch. (But I guess those are vegan, so they wouldn't like them anyway.) They often take whatever opportunity they find to fan the flames of anti-vegan prejudice by complaining about activists trying to destroy their livelihoods or hurt "their" animals.

Then there's also ag-gag legislation, the deliberate attempt to make showing the public what happens in animal agriculture illegal; anti-vegan terms and anti-animal euphemisms, like "extremists," "beef", and "humanely raised," to promote the false belief that what we do to animals is right and what vegans believe is wrong; the label fight, attempts by the industry/government to prevent plant-based products from infiltrating the non-vegan market by preventing them from using terms like "milk" or "burger"; and the censorship of images on social media, who are so quick to put a "sensitive content warning" over a picture of a chicken being decapitated but see no problem with farmers showing their followers how to inseminate a cow.

The First Two

The first two types of cancel culture "victims" are, in my opinion, fundamentally different from each other, generally because of the accusee's initial "crime" and their response. With the first type, there's often a pattern of egregiously intolerant behavior which the accused fails to acknowledge or accept as immoral. With the second type, though there may have been many instances of wrongful actions, the public remains unwilling to let the issue go even after acknowledgment, and often even apologies (however truthful they may be), by the accused.

However, what's most important here is not the person/people accused or even the wrongful acts for which they face public persecution. It's the public's response to them that is of utmost importance, as long we care about actually informing them on the error of their ways and making the world a better place.

Empathy or Apathy

Most of us will never know how it feels to truly be canceled, to feel as if the entire world would prefer you just dropped dead, but if I were to put myself in their shoes, as difficult as that may be, I can easily imagine what my reaction would be: victimization. That's what canceling does; it turns, as the quote above says, villains into victims. It doesn't teach them the error of their ways, nor does it provide them the helpful, positive environment necessary to change their habits moving forward. All it does is reinforce the belief in their mind that they are the ones being victimized, not the people who they victimized in the first place.

As vegans, we should know better than most that the best way to get people to make positive changes in their lives -- whether it's encouraging them to eat plants instead of animals or teaching them that racism is much more than simply using derogatory slurs and believing stereotypes -- is to be gentle with their egos, to treat them with compassion instead of coldness, and to learn to be patient while they find their way toward understanding.

Cancel or Consequence

So, what's the solution? Of course, we shouldn't let these issues go, and people need to be held accountable for their actions. But we can't throw all these people and their biased beliefs into a corner out of sight; we need to confront it, air out the dirty laundry, and have honest discussions about why certain things are morally wrong and how we can change them. Now, I'm not claiming that's easy to do because there will always be resistance, and often very strong resistance at that, but we have to try.

That's the only way we can progress as a society, and when we do that, we can then appropriately deal with the legitimate and systemic censorship of alternative views, like animal rights, that pose a serious threat not only to the voiceless victims but to the rights of those speaking out on their behalf.

be conscious, be kind, be vegan