The Best Alternative to Cancel Culture

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Cancel culture is bad not only because it can destroy a person’s life, but it negatively effects everyone else as well- by robbing them of their rights to decide and choose for themselves. Let’s take book burning and banning for example.

When people burn or ban books and their authors, not only are they destroying the lives of the authors, but they’re also robbing others who may want to order them their right to read them and choose for themselves whether they like them.

If I find a book in a bookstore and I like the title, cover, and the synopsis on the back jacket, then I want to read it. You may not like the book, it’s author, title, or cover, but it doesn’t mean that someone else won’t.

Understand that cancel culture only infringes on our rights to choose what we want to read, watch, buy, or consume. Who is anyone else to try and choose for us? Who do they think they are?

If you are a part of the cancel culture crowd, then yes! I’m talking directly to you. I ask again. Who do you think you are? Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot read, watch, consume, or purchase?

Not only am I speaking for myself, but also for every single person that values their right to decide and to choose.

If you don’t like something, fine. You have a right not to like it and you have a right not to have anything to do with it. What you don’t have a right to do is take away others’ choice to see it, judge for themselves, and like it.

Cancel culture violates the personal boundaries of everyone! It seeks to tell you what it thinks you should do. It tells you what to read, watch, eat, use, and who to associate with. In short, cancel culture strips us all of our God-given rights to self-determination.

But isn’t that what all bullies do, strip their targets (and everyone else) of their right to choose? Their right to have an opinion? Their right to speak and to have dignity? Their rights to self-determination?

Of course. With that said, anyone who participates in cancelling a person or entity is a bully! Period. Full stop. And I can’t stomach a bully!

The alternative to cancel culture is using common sense. In other words, if you don’t like someone, don’t associate with the person but don’t take away my right to decide that I want to associate with them. If you see an item for sale in a store and you don’t like it, then don’t buy it but don’t take away my right to choose and buy it.

If you don’t like the brand or, more appropriately, if the brand “offends” you, don’t buy it.

If you don’t like or are offended by the show, don’t watch it.

If you don’t like the person or are offended by them, stay away from them and have nothing more to do with them.

If you don’t like the business or are offended by it, don’t patronize it.

If you don’t like the book, don’t read it.

Do you see how this works? It’s that simple.

It’s high time that more people learn to adopt this way of living. It’s high time that more people rise up and push back against this senseless, moronic scourge called cancel culture. It’s also high time we push back against anyone who participates in it and condones it and the sooner we begin doing these things, the sooner our freedoms of choice and self-determination will be restored.

With knowledge comes empowerment!

115 thoughts on “The Best Alternative to Cancel Culture”

  4. ThingsHelenLoves says:
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    I detest cancel culture, because it is so easily turned into a vehicle for judgement and bullying. It’s also used as a stick to beat people with. Great post!

    • cheriewhite says:
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      You’re absolutely right on both points, Helen! 💯 Thank you so much for your spot-on comment! Cancel culture is something that should be outlawed and I have a feeling it will be later down the road.

  6. Leigh Roberson says:
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    OOh, I am so in agreement with this post! You have said it well. As a grown adult woman with a little bit of life experience, I do not need anyone else telling me what to think or do! Excellent post! Best Wishes! Leigh

  7. Kym Gordon Moore says:
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    Very good Cherie. Cancel culture has been going on for centuries, the difference is there are more social channels to get it out there faster. It can destroy lives, quite often from the spread of a wildfire of lies. I don’t care who you are, how much money you have or what political side of the aisle you are on, it comes from everywhere and it is not ok. Yet all too often, people point fingers when they don’t have the facts. We have the right to disagree, but being brutal is a horse of a different color. Thanks so much for sharing this message. 👏🏼💖🤗

  8. CareTrain says:
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    Here is the problem though. I generally agree with what you say but there are things like libel which aren’t legal but you have certain companies and websites that knowing allow it and then hide behind the Communication Decency Act Section 230 to see they hold no responsibility. Sometimes ignoring something is not enough. For example let’s say someone creates a website telling blatant lies about you. You may simply try to ignore it but others are reading it and it can destroy yours or someone else’s reputation. My point being is no cancel culture is not good but it isn’t a straight up black and white issue either.Because a company or website that allows bullying and does zero about it is a bully as well.

  9. Dawn Pisturino says:
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    Yes! That’s the question! Who do these people think they are, anyways? They have no right or authority to tell me or anybody else what to think, what to read, who to vote for. Excellent post!

  14. Sue Gallagher says:
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    Yes. I keep saying that agreeing to disagree is the right attitude. Banning books is wrong. As writers, we appreciate the implications more than any other group. As for facts, we as writers have an obligation to verify the veracity of a piece of information. Plagiarism too is a lazy way to perpetuate lies. Writers have a responsibility to maintain a healthy attitude of truth so book banning is seen as a negative.

      • Sue Gallagher says:
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        Of course, Cherie. As writers we help people to think about things. So I think we both can encourage critical thinking without accepting violent, uncivilized interaction. I like to think that we can make a difference😁

        • cheriewhite says:
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          Absolutely we can, Sue. We can respect each others’ opinions even through we don’t always agree with them. This is one of those values that we need to bring back.

  16. peter robinson says:
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    Well said! There’s an old English expression, “to send someone to Coventry”, (maybe you heard of it?), which sounds very much like an earlier version of “cancel culture”.

  17. pflkwy says:
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    “Quando as pessoas queimam ou proíbem livros e seus autores, não apenas estão destruindo a vida dos autores, mas também estão roubando outros que podem querer ordenar a eles o direito de lê-los e escolher por si mesmos se gostam deles”. Elas estão tirando o direito de cada ser adquirir o conhecimento, não há como se desenvolver que não seja através dos livros. Somos seres acuturaveis.

    • cheriewhite says:
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      Translating the part-“They are taking away the right of every being to acquire knowledge, there is no way to develop it other than through books. We are acculturate beings.”

      This is very well-said! Thank you so much for this very intelligent and insightful comment! You couldn’t have said it any better than this! 🙂🙂🙂

  23. Daniel Andrew Lockwood says:
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    Good evening

    Hiding, or censoring what we think is “bad” is extremely unhealthy for all mankind, for without its researchable existence, we have virtually no motivation to create the opposite of we do not want to either magnify or repeat. Most point to bad things and say they need to be eradicated, but this is a house of cards when it comes to making the world kinder, safer, and more cooperative. We cannot destroy evil and expect utopia, it doesn’t work that way. We must instead manufacture peace and morality. This takes a lot of effort which is why many are satisfied with choosing to simply accuse and blame. When we purposely surround ourselves with chaos (judge) we are attempting to convince ourselves we’re doing okay because we aren’t “those” people, but in reality, we’re doing nothing at all. The ignorance of hate and the hate of ignorance are the exact same energy. Both are fire. Both destroy. “Complaining” actually has a positive role as long as we use our observations as a catalyst to produce what will entice people to turn away from hate and towards Love. Most just whine and then to nothing at all to fix what they disagree with.

    When the allied forces of WWII reached Berlin and found the charred bodies of thousands of murdered Jews in the hastily abandoned internment camps, they piled the bodies and made the German people walk by and look at the horrors they were in denial about. Pictures of this can easily be found online, and they are powerful reminders that we must always remember what should have never happened to begin with.

    I would, however, like to point out the following observation. When a person or group does something they regret, like say for instance Disney’s film “Song of the South” I think they have every right to do what they can to dismiss or debunk their own creation. The publishers of the Dr. Seuss library did the same recently with a few of their titles that had outdated and offensive references to racial stereotypes. Since it was their decision and not done in the court of public outcry, my opinion is that it’s justified in this context. I myself was a person who once told extremely offensive jokes as a young man that I would never repeat now, so I know the feeling.

  24. alvarezgalloso says:
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    Thanks. Im doing my part. I cancelled people from my blog who tried to Cancel my food from Goya. I also cancelled my subscription to BJs for their decisión to Cancel My Pillow

  26. 80smetalman says:
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    As authors ourselves, our books could easily be put on the pyre. I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone from Oakley called for “From Victim to Victor” to be burned. Same with both of mine, at least in “He Was Weird,” the town which inspired it. As for “Rock and Roll Children,” I was hoping the Fundamentalist Christian community would call for it to be burned, but that’s my twisted mind. The Nazis burned lots of books, that should tell you everything.

  27. rts - Facing the Challenges of Mental Health says:
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    Cherie, there is a long history of authoritarians who banned and burned books. This attitude is alive and well in many countries.
    I am sure that if people saw my bookcase and the books within it, they would be quick to judge. I would probably be told that I shouldn’t read such material.
    For instance, while in active ministry I made it my mission to understand all people of different faiths. Whether I agreed to their tenets of faith or I disagreed, I feel it made me a better person.
    I have been known to have discussions with those whose belief system has been marginalized. I have great conversations with my doctor specialist who is of the Muslim Faith. I love talking with him. He is a deep well of wisdom and many truths we find in common. If I never spoke to him I would have never learned about the Muslim Faith.
    I still read, watch or listen to things most “Christians” would have a “hissy fit”.
    Like you say at the end of each post, “With knowledge comes empowerment!”

    • cheriewhite says:
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      I admire you for your willingness to learn about other faiths as well, Dwain! And you’re right, most Christians would go nuts! And you’re right again that books have been banned for centuries. It’s a shameful practice.

  28. Stella Reddy says:
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    Great post. I read this one to my husband, as we both are in agreement that it needs to stop. People have so many choices in what they do, and they deserve to have that right. There is nothing that says every individual needs to like the same thing! It takes away individuality!

  29. euroktoo says:
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    Is Cancel Culture the same as judging events with a 21century perspective ( and unsure of the history or the way of thinking at the time of the event or the era) and then indoctorating a new perspective which essentially erases many people’s beliefs, history, traditions or culture without much discussion? Am struggling with that as my history is being rewritten to make a people feel more accepted. Help me please sort through this-I do value your thinking!

    • cheriewhite says:
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      That is certainly one of the characteristics of Cancel culture, Kim! But narcissistic bullies love doing that, don’t they? They love to rewrite history, either your history or the history of an entire nation and world! I love your very thought-provoking comment! 💖🎉🌷🦋

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