Why We Need to Cancel ‘Cancel Culture’
These days, everyone has an opinion.
And social media and our culture of openness and sharing make it all too easy to express it.
What happens when you struggle to express a nuanced thought with grace?
And because you struggle with this, you go around inadvertently offending people.
A good friend of mine is afflicted with this malady. Recently, they got themselves in hot water during a discussion on refugees.
A group of us were talking about how Canada has taken in many refugees in the last few years from Syria and other war-torn places.
We see them in our communities, walking down the street, usually easy to identify in their traditional attires, covered heads (for the women), distinct language, and larger than normal families.
My friend isn’t necessarily against our refugee policy. He just feels that we need to take a more thoughtful approach to where we relocate these refugees. He takes issue with the fact that refugees are planted in already populous communities that are rife with economic migrants, such as Vancouver and Toronto. He feels that refugees should be settled in our other, lesser-known communities that aren’t already hot spots for immigration.
The Atlantic provinces aren’t frequently visited because they tend to be frozen tundras. The Prairie provinces need people but they’re less metropolitan.
Why can’t we place the refugees there to enjoy maximum economic benefits?
I don’t necessarily disagree with his opinion. There’s a difference between refugees and economic migrants. Refugees are given more resources and financial support through the federal government. There should be an expectation that they settle in areas where we need people, not in the areas that are already benefiting from large influxes of economic migrants.
However, when my friend expresses these opinions in a public setting, it comes off as a rant blaming refugees for our problems — high housing prices, densification, crowded marketplaces. He rails against refugees being sent to the ‘good places’, such as Vancouver and Toronto.
I try to gently remind my friend not to express his opinions so stridently, as strongly as he feels about them. But in the heat of the moment, I know he can’t help but get carried away. And leave a negative impression. And maybe even get ‘canceled’.
What this has taught me is that there is something broken about our ‘cancel culture’.
Not everything that comes out of someone’s mouth carries the weight of their biases in it. Sometimes, it’s just an awkwardly expressed thought because the ‘right’, politically correct words elude them.
Why do we put so much pressure on others to express themselves in just the right away, delicately and inoffensively? Why isn’t there any margin of error?
People are complex. No one is black and white. If we can approach each other with patience, curiosity, and a desire to probe further and understand, our relationships with each other would be all the stronger for it.
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