Baskadia

In today's digital era, many media outlets manipulate information to align it with their own agendas and narratives. This doesn't mean changing and manipulating the media completely, but it could mean not saying the whole truth or only showing a part of it. This is done to either make the other party look bad, make their own party look good, promote a product, demote a product, push a narrative or idea, or oppose one. Media manipulation is prevalent in many industries, such as food, health and wellness, politics, journalism, social media, and the internet. Today we’ll be diving into cancel culture, which is one of the most recent and, in my opinion, one of the biggest forms of media manipulation today. Let’s explore this topic and its effects on the current generation, hopefully without getting canceled ourselves.

Cancel culture is the banning, opposing, and withdrawing of support from someone, usually a public figure or an organization. This could mean removing someone from their job, unfollowing them, condemning their values and message, banning them from social media, denouncing them on media platforms, and, over all, destroying a person or group’s public identity and reputation from the outside in. People and organizations are usually criticized for their beliefs and what they stand for. Canceling someone is usually done under the guise of public safety, as the ideas being spread by the “canceled” are seen as dangerous and harmful to society. Once someone is removed from the media, they are usually criticized and badmouthed to the point of defamation. Once this happens, it’s very difficult for the canceled person to restore their reputation. Mainly because it’s very hard to fix something that’s already broken, and secondly because they cannot defend themselves since they have been banned from the platforms where they can explain themselves, apologize, fix their mistakes, or clear misunderstandings. The professional careers of these people are usually ruined; however, those who manage to survive a cancellation usually recover and come back bigger than before. This happens because of an unjust and unfair cancellation, which, in my opinion, is usually most of them.

Even if you disagree with the beliefs and values of certain people, it’s never fair to shut someone up completely just because you disagree with them. The truth is usually found somewhere between two opposing ideas. Cancellation usually occurs when someone disagrees with minority groups, such as the lgbtq community. These people are seen as oppressing the victims and therefore get canceled. However, nowadays the sensitivity of some minority groups has become too extreme, and now simply disagreeing with their beliefs can be deemed cancelable. Tyranny of the oppressed is a key theme seen in cancellation. Minority groups play the victim card, which makes cancellation seem fair and in the name of justice and public safety. However, this is not the case for most cancellations, where the agenda of the cancellation is to silence those who disagree and give a different perspective and viewpoint to the public. These people, products, or organizations are demonized and stripped of all credibility. A great example of someone who was canceled for their beliefs and values is Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, who was canceled on YouTube, removed from his academic professions at Harvard and the University of Toronto, as well as from his psychotherapy practices, and demonized by the lgbtq community for his opposition to Bill C-16. This led to the most stressful and financially challenging time of his life. Despite this, the cancellation actually led to more people being aware of him and his ideas. Once people actually paid attention to him and his words, they realized that he was actually in the right. His ideas and perspective on the matter were largely agreed upon by the public, and he was later unbanned from YouTube, where he now continues to give lectures and share his perspectives and values with the public. Thanks to the cancellation he gained more followers, more opportunities, and his career has never reached a higher peak. He is one of the great survivors of canceled culture and even benefited from it. This only happened because his cancellation was an unfair attempt at ruining his name and ideas. Those against him tried to manipulate the narratives and make him look like an unempathetic and evil person. Some articles and videos even compared him to Hitler. 

Over all, cancel culture is a form of media manipulation that leaves the victim defenseless against media attacks and reputation destruction. It also leads to misinformation and biased information as it silences the opposing side which largely affects the public’s decision making. I believe the best way to fight against culture is to promote free speech. Some examples of free speech media platforms that should be supported are X and Rumble. The mass public should be given the right to the whole truth and both sides of the stroy always. To silence and cancel one side just because they disagree with the other is in itself a form of tyranny and should be stopped. Even canceled.

References: 

• Ahsan, N. (2017, August 30). The Silencing of Jordan Peterson. Fair Observer. https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/jordan-peterson-canada-transgender-rights-debate-news-51321/
  

Media manipulation & disinformation. (n.d.). Data & Society. https://datasociety.net/research/media-manipulation/