I’ve been on the radio for a few years now, and I can think of a few occasions when I might have been cancelled. I’m not going to risk prompting new ire by sharing them here, but I have thoughtlessly uttered sentences that could have caused hurt or distress. Luckily (for me), my stupid comments didn’t prompt any social media backlash or weren’t picked up by another media outlet.
Relatively unscathed, so far, I move on and try my very best to think before I talk. But there’s always a risk I might do it again: I could be tired or cranky or distracted and come out with something glib. I am less than perfect. Everyone is less than perfect.
No, this isn’t a rant against so-called cancel culture, and no, I’m certainly not going to get into specific cases. Each one is different: the transgressions can range from the stupid statement to the (allegedly) evil act, and in a properly functioning democracy, everyone is entitled to an opinion about it.
The court of public opinion, unlike an actual court, is completely unregulated
If you come out with some declaration, reasonable or appalling, others will, and perhaps should, line up to disagree with you. That’s the court of public opinion.
The only wrinkle with this is that the court of public opinion, unlike an actual court, is completely unregulated. It doesn’t operate by any rules of procedure or fairness. It doesn’t have to take into account extenuating circumstances. It doesn’t need much in the way of facts to come to a conclusion. It doesn’t have to judge whether one offence is more morally repugnant than another.
Wide variety
Trawl through the comments on the trending scandal of the day – or think pieces in the mainstream media – and the wide variety of opinion is always striking. There will be the thoughtful and measured and insightful, but there’s also illogical inference, ignorance of how the laws of defamation or criminal proceedings operate, false equivalences, ignorance of how businesses operate and, all too often, prejudice dressed up as moral outrage.
All transgressors become a fixed quantity, forever defined by that one bad thing
Every now and again I succumb to the temptation of scrolling through this commentary and what always strikes me is not so much the individual examples of wisdom or stupidity, but the cumulative effect: the thundering noise aimed at one individual. I can’t think of a situation where the criticism was unwarranted, yet often I emerge from it feeling a morsel of sympathy for the target; for a person who in most other respects I wouldn’t have much time for.
Because that cumulative effect seems to preclude the possibility of redemption. Of course, there are some acts so heinous it’s difficult to imagine any form of forgiveness, but in the court of public opinion, that can seem to apply to all transgressors: they become a fixed quantity, forever defined by that one bad thing, forever incapable of regret or learning from their mistakes. The court of public opinion never forgets.
No easy fix
Beats me how to fix this. It is fundamentally important that we should all be allowed to express our opinions, and that should never be stymied. Perhaps it’s worth pointing out that, as less-than-perfect human beings, many of us have contributed to this noise, without considering the less-than-perfect human it is aimed at. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of asking oneself: does social media really need my comment on this?
And perhaps it’s also worth considering the place we live in. I am immensely proud to be Irish. My patriotism is multifactorial, but one major component is how far we have come as a country. We have changed and learned: we have learned that “difference” is not something to be feared or despised, but to be celebrated. We have learned, and continue to learn, that we all deserve kindness.
But it wasn't always like that. Just decades ago, Ireland was a darker and more inhospitable place. Just decades ago, if it was possible then, we would have cancelled ourselves.