Cancel culture is a relatively new phenomenon referring to a modern form of ostracism in which people are essentially culturally "blocked" from gaining or maintaining a celebrated platform following problematic or controversial actions.

Ellen Degeneres, Chris Pratt, J.K Rowling and David Dobrik are a few celebrities to be 'cancelled' of late. Anti LGBTQ Church membership, transphobic comments, sexual harassment allegations are just a few of the many reasons these celebrities have been publicly called out and held accountable.

So is this "culture" per say threatening our freedom? 64% of Americans believe exactly so. Are we terribly afraid of responsibility and accountability or does cancel culture leave no room for error and mistake? 

While Twitter users are constantly engaging and debating the morality of 'cancelling' someone, cancel culture is spreading like wildfire. No longer exclusive to celebrities and influencers alike, ordinary social media scrollers and users are being called out. Cancel culture can even go as far as emailing people's places of work or study informing them of racist tweets or inappropriate comments. Leaving no room for the bygone mindset of passivity and apathy towards these problematic views and opinions, the new generation is tackling these issues with force, pushing and probing people to use their platform justly and to always take accountability.

Additionally, it is important to note while 'cancelling' may seem threatening and unfavourable to one's reputation, there is no significant power to it. Celebrities, such as the Kardashians, have been cancelled time and time again, yet still remain their ever growing fanatics and followers as well as their multi million dollar brand deals. Occasionally, real change is incited and genuine apologies published, but this is not always the case, though it is the ideal. 

The general school of thought is, specifically from the older generation, is that this culture aggressively denies people the right to trip up and make mistakes, and makes it even harder to apologize, instead one slip up threatens one's entire reputation and respectability. Every old tweet, facebook comment, instagram story scanned and criticized and put to trial by the public! Not a fan of PC culture!

Whereas Gen Z has a different approach entirely. Essentially Gen Z says a big screw you to passively dismissing comments that perpetuate and inflate racist, homophobic and misogynitic norms of the past. Instead, forcing people, most importantly celebrities who have the ability to incite real change with their constantly growing platform to set a respectable precedent for all to follow, while slowing breaking down fascist mindsets that have been tolerated for far too long. 

Cancel culture is still being debated constantly, the Archbishop of Canterbury even stating it "threatens the future of the Church".

It begs the question: are we restricting people's right to freedom of thought and speech or are we deathly afraid of being held accountable?