Do Americans have the right to cancel anyone?

In a time when millions of Americans worship at the altar of Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram, a movement called “cancel culture’’ has emerged. This is a practice in which a group protests, ‘cancels,’ and publicly shuns an individual.

While in office, former President Donald Trump gave an executive order pertaining to the media’s suppression of ideas. “Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube wield immense, if not unprecedented, power to shape the interpretation of public events; to censor, delete, or disappear information; and to control what people see or do not see,” said Trump. “I have made clear my commitment to free and open debate on the Internet. Such debate… is essential to sustaining our democracy.”

Celebrities act as role models, with stories of success for aspiring individuals all around the globe. Icons such as Shane Dawson, Ellen DeGeneres, and James Gunn are just a few examples of celebrities that crossed a line and paid the price for it.

Should the Internet have such an immense impact on the lives of ordinary people, elevated because of their ability to perform? Many big-name celebrities such as J.K. Rowling and Dr. Phil, say no, that cancel culture is “toxic.” But doesn’t the world have the right to revoke support from something they do not believe in?

Former President Barack Obama had something to say on this issue, as well.”This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly,” said Obama. “The world is messy, there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”

Does it make sense for something posted on Twitter in 2009 to end someone’s career in 2022? If the behavior continues, the answer is, “yeah, probably.” America considers itself a “woke” culture, that it is so accepting of other cultures or ideologies or beliefs, but really, it practices tolerance, and tolerance is not acceptance. When the culture shuns people because they disagree with them, the ideas of civil discourse and societal advancement become moot. America is founded upon individual freedoms. Canceling and ruining someone’s livelihood is not just, nor does it align with our original, central beliefs. We should hold one another to the standard of treating each other well, but canceling someone for a difference of opinion or dredging up someone’s past is nothing more than intolerance, and is that not the opposite of what being “woke” is?