3 Times Cancel Culture Went Too Far

"The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse."

-Edmund Burke

Cancel culture has certainly helped to give a voice to the voiceless but what happens when you have too much power? Trolling people online has become ideal as you might have the excuse of cancel culture or a trend to validate bullying. I've had a lot of people advise to use twitter less as issues are fueled and instigated to look way worse than they actually are.

To reiterate, it has its advantages but we can agree that there have been a lot of times that cancel culture went too far and will be seen in the examples that follow:

Cancel Culture Fuels Cyber Trolling And It Should Be Cancelled

August Ames, an adult film star who was rising in the adult film industry until she decided she wouldn't have sex with a man who had gay sex on film. This may be a controversial opinion but she may have been wary since statistics show that males who have sex with males have higher chances of contracting STDs and was trying to be safe.

Twitter clamped down on her for being homophobic and discriminatory. Other stars even got into the fray and encouraged her to kill herself.

August committed suicide on December 5th, 2017. The truth you don't want to hear is she made a choice about her body and had chosen not to do something she was uncomfortable with.

Haley Morales, a 15-year-old YouTuber with over 800k subscribers was blamed for the suicidal death of one of her fans(Lena) in July 2019. The fan allegedly took her own life after an ill conversation about Lena between Haley and another fan account was leaked.

Lena dealt with hate and probably depression. Hayley's response was indeed hypocritical in my opinion and had gotten so much hate, and a hashtag dedicated to bringing her down.

It was later found that Lena was indeed not dead and had faked her suicide to teach Hayley a lesson.

In my opinion, they both sound insensitive but I listed this example because Hayley was cancelled so quickly but when the truth was revealed, the booing crowd jumped over to her side to jeer at Lena.

The latest is an icon, Chadwick Boseman or Tchala as fondly called who will forever remain in our hearts. He died on Aug 28 after suffering from colon cancer for 4 years. What you might not know or in fact know is that he was a victim of cyber trolling.

Early this year, he was trolled for losing weight and looking frail. This man had been battling sickness on his own and living his private life. I don't want to get sentimental but now the same people who trolled are feeling bad with, 'had I knowns'.

"Before you act, listen

Before you react, think

Before you spend, earn

Before you criticize, wait

Before you pray, forgive

Before you quit, try"

-Ernest Hemingway

The right way

From what we've seen, people seem to be following the multitude on hearsay or just because everyone seems to be doing it.

Just like you don't need to reply to everything you disagree with, you don't need to be on every trend as judge and jury. If you find the claws of social media too difficult to resist, make sure you're on the right side, saying the right things.

Assess the situation and make sure you have all the facts so you can develop an informed opinion.