America, You Good? Why the Shelf Life of the U.S’s Cancel Culture Is Just Manufactured Outrage.

America, honey, everything okay? With the past year bringing some of the most tumultuous, unending instances of takesies-backsies, I feel as though we’ve skipped the blink twice phase and have moved right into intervention territory.

In recent years, cancel culture in America has centered itself as the cornerstone of virtue signaling. Canceling figures left and right for the slightest offences. How dare you not recycle every single thing you’ve ever touched? Certainly, you’re a bad mother for sleeping, good mothers stay awake 24 hours. Why don’t you lose weight? Why don’t you gain weight? And most importantly, why do you have weight, existence is so detrimental to the planet.

Given that most current systems are a somewhat masochistic power play of the enjoyment of tearing others down, with no actual systems in place to build them up again, it’s simply manufactured outrage without a modicum of attention paid towards redemption. And don’t get me wrong, some things are publicly irredeemable, but what exactly can be defined as such.

Apparently, public figures have become the scale at which we uphold the highest of moral regard. And rightfully, because of course those who probably have no immediate background in mediation, social awareness or human decency should be used as the touchstone of America’s moral competency. And while I understand how we can confuse popularity with righteousness given their pedestals appear morally adjacent, they’re just as flawed as any Tom, Dick or Karen.

What is cancel culture, exactly, if redeemed without accountability? It’s manufactured outrage. It’s buying Balenciaga bags after publicly shaming the company for seemingly condoning child exploitation. It’s for normalizing a very human Ariana Grande’s less than palatable relationship choice on the red carpet and in the media. Apparently, our cancel culture does have a shelf-life and it’s called mainstream popularity. And while, I am not demonizing humans for making mistakes, it’s the culture that fiends ignorance, and pushes us to normalize those actions that I question.

The most upstanding example of this is, of course, the current reelection of Donald Trump. The twice impeached, four times indicted reality star has been protested against, mocked, debunked, and his statements have fact-checks attached as standard practice. But don’t let that cool you off. For almost the past decade we’ve heard politicians, doctors, sex workers, and more, wax poetic about the largely documented shortcomings of our former, read soon-to-be president and yet a majority of voting Americans have established, give us more. And while this is certainly a surprise to the never-ending, fast race to cancel him, alas, his reelection campaign was faster.

Americans have somehow become the unwitting NPCs (non-player characters) in the most dramatic, live action reality show ever aired, and the rest of the world is our audience. And while I wish there was some quick narrative or answer to this long-standing face-off of unredeeming cancel culture; time with accountability, and grace are the only way forward. In the meantime, a little delusion couldn’t hurt.