It CAN- “cancel culture” is one of these buzzwords that doesn’t mean anything because it means different things to different people. If a comedian does a special tomorrow and goes on a racist tirade and people call for accountability- is that “cancel culture”? Some would say yes. That said- holding people accountable for bad behavior is sort of one of the main ways to promote change isn’t it? If you had or have kids and one of them was acting badly, would you just shrug and be like- “well, we can’t take their allowance or ground them or call it out- they have constitutional freedom and it isn’t right to take away their livelihood and ability to do what they want just because I don’t like what they said…”
But then- yes- if you take a comedians set from 1985 that they haven’t repeated again and find some issue with it, trying to make them accountable in 2023 is maybe a bit late- you wouldn’t likely discipline a child at 16 because you found out they misbehaved at 6 and you missed it.
Of course- while we can see there are issues with dragging up things from the far flung past, does it actually hinder change? If a comedian made a racist remark in 1970 and then by 1980 no longer was making any “problematic” statements- did we stop or hinder their change? They already changed. Would someone say in 2023: “well I guess if they are going to criticize me for being racist 20 years ago- I’ll just double down and become overtly racist?”
Here’s the philosophical kicker- if punishing some for something they did however long ago “hinders change,” why do we lock up criminals for 40+ years? They did the crime so long ago but we keep punishing them. Why do we bother to arrest criminals for crimes from years or decades ago- especially if that person hasn’t committed another crime? Is the suggestion here that when someone violates social norms like breaking the law or behaving in ways society isn’t keen on that we just ignore it or….?
But then- yes- if you take a comedians set from 1985 that they haven’t repeated again and find some issue with it, trying to make them accountable in 2023 is maybe a bit late- you wouldn’t likely discipline a child at 16 because you found out they misbehaved at 6 and you missed it.
Here’s the philosophical kicker- if punishing some for something they did however long ago “hinders change,” why do we lock up criminals for 40+ years? They did the crime so long ago but we keep punishing them. Why do we bother to arrest criminals for crimes from years or decades ago- especially if that person hasn’t committed another crime? Is the suggestion here that when someone violates social norms like breaking the law or behaving in ways society isn’t keen on that we just ignore it or….?