There’s a very fine line between public accountability, and a mob mentality. Of course severe instances such as domestic violence, sexual assault, blatant racism or homophobia should not be easily forgiven, or forgiven at all. Actions that actively cause harm are unacceptable and should be treated as such. However, small instances, such as Dixie D’Amelio spitting out escargot at the dinner table, does not warrant the public attack that it recieves.

If one does not want to support a celebrity or individual because they disagree with their opinions or actions, that is completely fair and realistic. When groups of people take it upon themselves to ruin someone’s career before knowing the whole story is when cancel culture becomes problematic. 

For example, Kylie Jenner had donated to and promoted a GoFundMe for a makeup artist who had recently been in an accident. She had originally donated $5,000 towards the $120,000 goal, and many took to Twitter to bash her for the amount of money spent. “Folks are defending Kylie Jenner by pointing out she donated $5,000 to her makeup artist’s medical GoFundMe. Her net worth is $900M. So, that’s 0.000006% of her net worth. If your net worth were, say, $100k, it would be like donating 56 cents.” Charolette Clymer (@cmclymer) tweeted. However, what people were not aware of was that the original GoFundMe had a goal of $10,000, and at the time Kylie had donated, the fundraiser already raised $6,000, meaning that she had donated one thousand dollars more than she thought was needed.This is a classic example of people jumping into criticism without being fully aware of what had actually happened. Many instances like this have happened to lesser known influencers on social media, sometimes even permanently stunting their career over something that was simply a misunderstanding. 

Also those trying to cancel former presidents such as Thomas Jefferson for being racist, which he very much was. In no way am I trying to excuse the atrocities he committed, it just seems pointless. He is no longer alive to see the consequences to his actions, it won’t change what has happened. There are much more productive ways to instill change for a better future to avoid history repeating itself. 

Recognizing how far we’ve come as a society as well as how much further we still need to go is important. In order to better the world we live in, we have to acknowledge the awful things that happened to prevent them from happening again. Holding people accountable for their actions is very much necessary in order to better society, however the focus should be on real issues. Celebrities making stupid decisions is nothing new, and wasting energy trying to end their careers over insignificant events is pointless in my opinion.