It can happen in a moment of time. One ill-advised tweet. One poorly worded post. One foolish act in public. And that’s it. You are branded. You are marked. You are guilty. For life.
Whatever good you’ve done in the past is forgotten, cancelled. However deep and sincere your apology, it will never be enough. You must carry the shame for the rest of your days. Away with you!
Ben Howe, author of The Immoral Majority, recounts with horror how he helped spread the video posted by a 37-year-old man named Adam Smith. Smith thought he was doing a good thing by berating a Chick-fil-A worker about her allegedly hateful company, and he proudly posted the video of the encounter.
Howe writes, “I didn’t spearhead the charge, but I was one member of a growing Twitter mob. The hunt began immediately.
By the next day, Smith’s video long deleted, internet sleuths had located his LinkedIn profile and, in short order, his place of work.
Soon enough, he was fired from his job, and despite posting a public apology to the Chick-fil-A worker, named Rachel, he was fired from other jobs after that once news of his connection to the initial video surfaced.
There is no forgiveness and no redemption in the cancel culture. One wrong move, and you are disqualified forever.
According to Howe, “Smith said this pattern repeated itself in the years that followed, and his family eventually had to resort to food stamps to survive without his income. He says he became suicidal, contemplating driving off a cliff so his wife and children could collect on his insurance policy, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“His life had been completely and seemingly irreversibly destroyed.”
This is what today’s cancel culture does.
Just ask Drew Brees, longtime quarterback of the New Orleans Saints and one of the most popular players in the NFL. And, to my knowledge, a man never before accused of being racist.
But on Wednesday, all hell broke loose against him when he said that he “will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”
He was referring to the practice of some NFL players to kneel down during the national anthem as a sign of protest, and he was expressing his disagreement with it.
Was the statement ill-timed in light of the killing of George Floyd? Would it have been better not to say something like this at all right now? Even when pressed for his opinion about players kneeling in protest, could he have said, “Now is not the time to ask that question. I want to focus on the pain and frustration experienced by the black community across America.”
Yes, I’m sure he could have held his peace or expressed himself differently. And he recognizes that as well.
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SOURCE: Charisma News
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