Society's speech is greatly limited through the perpetuation of Cancel culture. photo courtesy of Getty Images
Society’s status quo results in the limitation of speech.
Many believe that freedom of speech is one of the most important fundamental rights of society. But nowadays, many have observed that freedom of speech is more limited than ever. Cancel culture is one of the most vicious ways in which society puts pressure upon one’s back. This is accomplished through mass cancellation where society pulls back from figures and begins to shun them. With a society that has harbored Cancel culture through the use of social media, protest, and even destruction of property, there is clear evidence that the world has made a shift from respecting opinions to canceling those that are not most common.
This shift creates an environment where people no longer speak their mind nor share their opinion and instead are forced to reflect the views of the status quo. Whereas in a successful and thriving society, people respect and appreciate other opinions regardless of what they are which promotes a positive community, enabling the formation of one’s own best opinion. Society must make a crucial shift towards striving for deeper understanding when listening to others opinions with a priority focus of this being open mindedness. This enables a system that perpetuates growth, where ideas are constantly being added onto and improved.
Throughout the last few years, Cancel culture has thrived. There are hundreds of different instances of people, especially celebrities, who have had their entire lives and careers flipped over because of it. For example, Christiano Ronaldo was canceled by an entire institution. Ronaldo had a rather lucrative contract with the professional soccer club Manchester United until an incident involving a controversial press conference where Ronaldo criticized the club and the Glazer family, who owns the club. Ronaldo stated that he had “no respect” for the manager of the team, Erik Ten Hag. Following these statements, Ronaldo was forced to leave the club, which many may argue was a reasonable consequence. However, Ronaldo was promptly bombarded with accusations and threats. He was accosted by the general public and specifically by fans of Manchester United. Ronaldo was called a backstabber, a traitor, and was slandered by many.
Instead of continuing this behavior, if people were to have taken a different approach to his comments rather than slander, it could have resulted in a positive impact on both the team and fans, as well as Ronaldo himself. If the club and fans had taken what he said, and tried to build off of it and dig into what he is really getting after, they may have unlocked the possibility of uncovering real problems that are rooted into the team. Through the understanding that Ronaldo is in a situation that nobody except the rest of the players on the team truly understand, it gives his opinions more credibility. He is not someone with a personal vendetta against the club; he plays for the club, and has led them to many victories. The root cause of him making these comments is that he would like to see change for the better. Taking this approach helps the audience build off of his comments and respect them. While yes, there will be many disagreements with his opinion and his ideas of solutions for the problems he has, by respecting and striving to understand we can better fix and address problems, as well as get insight as to what others may also believe.
This relates to a broad scale of ideas and comments. From everyday conversations about casual topics to international speeches, it is beneficial to look at all opinions and strive to gain a deeper understanding. Put yourself into other people’s shoes, figure out why people are making the comments they are making. Without doing this, you will never open up the door to making your own personal opinions. Yes, oftentimes the status quo is correct morally and logically;however, there is such a broad variety of opinions regarding all topics, that there is not necessarily a right or wrong.
There are an infinite amount of morally right and wrong answers with no set list, however an opinion is an opinion and nothing more, it is not a fact. Often people snap when they hear opinions voiced that they go against and that are regarded as morally wrong. Instead, disagree with the opinion, that is fine, but figure out how you can help the other person understand your own personal opinion on the topic. From there, build off of the different opinions. It is only through this process of perpetual improvement that society reaches its highest functionality.
