Cancel Culture…

Written by: Carter Herman

Cancel culture is often framed as a tool for justice, but in practice, it functions more like a public spectacle to humiliate the people who the proprietors disagree with—one that prioritizes outrage over understanding the context around the controversial statement. It thrives on speed, a lack of nuance, and punishment: not reflection or growth. One of the critiques of our criminal justice system is that it focuses too much on punishment and little on its adjunct cause of rehabilitating said offenders. The same logic applies here. But few people who cancel others appreciate this, and the result? A culture more concerned with condemnation than with actual change. When someone is “cancelled,” the conversation doesn’t end there. No room for text, no path to redemption—just social ostracization. That kind of Kafkaesque rigidity doesn't strengthen a pluralistic society. It stifles it. If we wish to address harmful behavior, we need systems that encourage learning; true accountability is slow and uncomfortable. But it’s the only way people truly evolve. Cancel culture, for all its noise, rarely leaves space for transformation. Without it we’re not building justice—we’re building silence.