Cancel Culture: Accountability? Or Revenge…
We should all ask ourselves what our motivations are before engaging in vitriolic chatter online.
There was a time when what we now call “Cancel Culture” showed real promise in holding individuals and institutions alike accountable for the things they said and did.
Sadly, those calls for accountability have largely devolved into calls for revenge. There’s a difference.
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Not long ago, social media – having subjected us to all manner of useless material for many years – suddenly became an incredible tool for right-sizing injustice. Dozens of incidents of racism, sexism, police brutality, corruption, and plain old-fashioned stupidity were seeing the light of day. Regular folks came together to demand accountability from those who broke the law or thought the rules just didn’t apply to them, and it was amazing. A great equalizer. A paradigm shift unlike anything we’d seen before. What an opportunity!!
Alas…it was brief.
If it bleeds it leads – on social media as anywhere else, and our newest iteration of collective action has taken a turn for the worse.
Those who seek the affirmation of social media “likes and shares” are now rewarded for being hateful, spurred along under cover of anonymity by algorithms that naturally push inflammatory content. Offenses as minor as expressing an unpopular opinion can spark a virtual pile-on that can have life-changing consequences for the offender, with the “us vs. them” tribalism of recent years adding to the momentum. Too often, Cancel Culture is not focused on accountability, but revenge.
It’s easy to blur the lines between accountability and revenge when something offends us, but what are the characteristics of each?
Accountability:
Responsibility: Accountability involves taking responsibility for one's actions and recognizing the consequences that may follow.
Learning: It is an opportunity for growth and development, encouraging individuals to learn from their mistakes and work towards improvement.
Restoration: Accountability aims to repair harm, restore trust, and make amends to those affected by an individual's actions.
Fairness: It seeks to establish an equitable outcome, based on an impartial assessment of the facts and circumstances.
Addressing specific behavior: Accountability is primarily concerned with an individual’s actions or behavior, rather than the person as a whole.
Revenge:
Retaliation: Revenge seeks to punish or harm someone in response to perceived wrongs, rather than addressing the underlying issue.
Emotional responses: It often stems from feelings of anger, resentment, or humiliation, and is driven by a desire to make someone else suffer.
Escalation: Revenge perpetuates a cycle of violence or conflict, potentially provoking further retaliation from the targeted individual or group.
Attacking the individual: Revenge tends to focus on the person who committed the perceived wrong, rather than addressing their specific actions or behavior.
Lack of resolution: Revenge typically does not lead to long-term resolution or healing, often ignoring the root causes of the issue at hand.
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We should all ask ourselves what our motivations are before engaging in vitriolic chatter online.
Seeking to “cancel” those who offend us will never dissuade anyone of offensive viewpoints or bring us, as a society, to greater equity or a shared understanding of how we treat each other.
People should be held responsible for the things they say and do, that’s accountability.
Trying to destroy the lives of those who make mistakes or offend us? That’s revenge.
There’s a difference.
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Daniel S. Holt is the founder of Washington based Anchorage Partners LLC