Most of the things that bother me are on your list
I’d add fanatics to the group. Especially religious and political ones. Along with woke/cancel culture types and people who violate boundaries and privacy.
Care to share the rest? It's not everyday that I meet somebody who shares my troubles, and probably the first that I feel inclined to believe they really do.
I'm with you on that, ((though possibly not for the same reason)). What do
you think is wrong with the cancel culture?
I think cancel culture perpetuates brutal black-and-white thinking; the notion that one single perceived "offense" overrules all of your good and achievement. This is pretty much identical to how a narcissist mind works,
"You're either all good or all bad and nothing in between. I don't agree with you 100% therefore you must be destroyed or dismissed." It's frightening to witness today's highly intolerant society adopting that kind of mindset. On the other hand, I also don't support the "cancel cancel culture". The answer is rarely the opposite of extremes. And as the saying goes, the only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing and be nothing. Feedback and criticisms are vital to personal growth as we sometimes fail to recognise our own shortcomings. People should not be banned or discouraged from voicing disagreement towards actual oppression, corruption, ignorance or otherwise. Our best interest lies in embracing the importance of having different perspectives and reasoning, and then working together to listen and clarify if something is objectively amiss. A form of penalty is often necessary and so is giving people the chance to redeem themselves.
"Cancel culture has been incredibly effective at combating sexism, racism, or any other type of abuse or harmful wrongdoing to others. It's held people accountable for their actions in ways that wasn't possible in the past."
The problem being, there isn't always a clear line. People don't always make informed decisions and risk accusing innocent people. And when it does come, it comes in waves.. a bandwagon mentality, a witch-hunt. These people don't educate. They bully, throw slurs, horrible insults, cast stones, and see nothing wrong with the barbaric act.
It's not rare that I would encounter denigrating remarks about a criminal's physical appearance in a crime documentary making the top comments. I couldn't help but wonder: How is that related to the crime he/she has committed? Can we just focus on that? At one point I did write about the lack of correlation to which they all responded with hostile fallacies "Ew, only people who are just as bad defends the criminal! You're a BleepBleep. People like you have no empathy. Heartless! Shame on you."
I found that to be quite ironic. They don't understand. It was not a defense for criminal act, only basic decency. Just because someone committed some crime, doesn't make it okay to ridicule his/her appearance unless strictly relevant. But as it stands, this isn't a beauty pageant. The fact that thousands and thousands of people believe this to not only be an acceptable behaviour but "good justice" that they took evident sadistic pleasure out of is plain horrifying. This is just straight up bullying, I thought to myself. Do they not realise everyone can read their comments? Among them there might just be people and even teenagers who weren't fortunate enough to win the genetic lottery, bestowed with less than what our generation today considers "ideal"; yet not the slightest ounce of concern for the massive cultural impact or how individuals would feel about the numerous demeaning comments on a trait they identify with. Oh wait.. no, that's because they're part of the mob too! Which brings me to: Hypocrisy.
We condemn discrimination and our judgemental society but many of us don't realise that we're part of what makes "society". We set the trend every time we worship and put another human on a throne for sheer looks or certain qualities and cast aside the rest, and then wonder "why is the world so vain and unfair?". Rather the question should be, How could you expect to be accepted when you don't accept others? Oh how better the world would be if people actually learn to love themselves instead of anticipating the love they're not able to provide. We know we're shifting towards the right direction when differences fascinate and dye-hard-fans cheers "Wow masterpiece!" instead of "Wow you're so hot!". But I digress. Most people don't go around telling how worthless a stranger is for not fitting the latest cultural standard of beauty. Of course not, they have a public image to uphold, they don't want to be mean, or should I say, appear mean. But here it is, the opportunity arise and their true thoughts are spilled, ultimately revealing the darker side to humanity. It came to my attention that even the nicest people lack awareness. There's this nasty entitlement to treat people however inhumanely after one big public mistake.
In essence, everyone seems sane on the surface until you know them better. I used to think that the world is full of evil people. But strictly speaking, the world is not filled with malice any more than it is filled with
character weaknesses; pure evil is rare. All humans have unique scars, many unfortunately never bother to study. Not knowing how to express fears and insecurities properly as a result, people become cruel, nonsensical, and crazy. What was friendly quickly turned into foul upon *perceived* danger that may or may not really be. They don't see they're hurting you, they only hear your shrieks - Tragic when two people in love keep triggering each other with their own defence mechanisms. I used to have someone who finds me cruel or perfect depending on the minute. But I know I am neither. I can see why she would think that however. Psychological splitting, object constancy, poor self-esteem.. Not many people appreciate having their abusive behaviours kindly pointed out. Many are unable to face their own flaws and the smallest disagreement, so much that their self worth is at the complete mercy of external approval and 'never appearing wrong' than not actually remaining wrong. Anyone who loves themselves enough will be happy to be given the opportunity to self improve, hence self-sufficiency should always comes first. After all, "your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have." But in this day and age, it's hard to hold out hope for the future of mankind when the average person would rather spend thousands of dollars to improve their external appearance than zero cents on self introspection. It doesn't help that escapism is readily available everywhere and only a gadget away.. distracting people even further from themselves.
