Cancel Culture and the Effects it has on Actual Human Beings
I’m aware most people are sick and tired of the typical “Cancel Culture is bad” and “Don’t make assumptions without evidence” and so forth. However, depending on the topic, it’s stupidly difficult to consider the facts when something horrible ALLEGEDLY happened; usually these events would require the authorities to be involved in some way or talking things out in private, instead, there are people who talk about private events in a public fashion, without speaking in private or contacting the authorities. This year we have seen multiple instances of public figures being slandered due to a “mistake” or someone’s personal vendetta against them; I understand that it’s hard to tell someone how you truly feel about them, but it’s worse to LIE about it to an impressionable audience and to yourself as well.
The biggest example I can think of that pretty much highlighted how quickly a celebrity’s fanbase can go against them is the James Charles situation, this event occurred because Mr.Charles chose to promote a beauty product that rivaled the product of a friend of his, keep in mind, these two people were close. Then, the friend lashed out and made a call-out video, the waterworks and all were included; this person is a woman known as Tati, a 37-year-old married woman with a career made, who had a vendetta against a 19-year-old young man. I put emphasis on their ages because she already has her life set out for her, while she, destroyed someone else’s career, someone who barely had a career in the first place. She claimed he sexually harassed a straight man who was a waiter at some restaurant they were in and he said a joke that wouldn’t come off as funny to an outsider, however, this joke was a reoccurring one and she conveniently uses it as a tool against him, later on, that same waiter says that he’s bisexual and that he was into Mr.Charles at first but then called him a pretty bad kisser, which was funny, but it contradicts that woman’s story.
 As the result of all of that, Mr.Charles’s audience turned against him to the point where outsiders became blatantly homophobic, this greatly affected Mr.Charles’s mental health as many stories were surfacing about him being some type of pervert for straight men, all these stories were false and their only purpose was to continue to destroy the image of this teenager. James Charles made the mistake of releasing a video trying to explain himself at his most vulnerable, he was clearly aware of his previous emotional state when he made a second video that was calmer, thought out, and overall, NO CRYING. Personally, as any viewer, I don’t like seeing public figures cry on video if it’s not something that would make someone cry without realizing it, like when someone tears up when they think about a traumatic event or talk about something they’d rather forget, those people might not even realize they’re crying; usually they edit that stuff out if it’s not a raw video. Usually if it’s done on purpose, the only reason they do that is because crying generates views and makes your audience feel sympathy for you in some way.
What grinds my gears is how disingenuous it looks when a public figure cries on camera, ESPECIALLY if I see editing throughout the video, it’s like the CS:GO Gambling website apology video by Trevor Martin. To put it briefly, it promoted gambling to young impressionable children. His apology wasn't sincere and it was meant to manipulate his audience as well; that makes me very angry, because that’s no different to me than spitting on my face and expect me not to have a violent reaction to that, it’s disgusting and it shows just how much literal human garbage exists on the planet. Which is why I appreciated the video Mr.Charles made, it was calm and collected, he addressed the accusations with his own evidence to debunk Tati’s allegations, and he ended it with an obviously passive-aggressive, but well deserved, “Bye Sister”, considering his catchphrase is “Hi Sisters”, it’s the nail in the coffin for Tati’s credibility.
However, James Charles isn’t the only one who fell victim to false allegations and cancel culture, a Youtube commentator known as Slazo was accused of rape by a former friend, the reason for the accusation had little to no weight, the young lady along with Slazo’s group of friends just wanted a reason to not associate with him anymore. Sure, maybe Slazo isn’t or wasn’t a good person, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t justify an accusation like that. Brilliantly, his “group of friends” opted to basically destroy his life; because that’s appropriate when a bunch of teenagers just decide to accuse someone of rape, everyone involved is a child, sure, they’re adults based on age, but the way this was handled? Nah, they’re all a bunch of muppets if you ask me. The girl who accused him of rape recently tried to commit suicide and was taken to a Mental institution, as horrible as that is, I know it’s because she doesn’t want to face the repercussions of a false allegation and the inevitable consequences of getting eaten alive by those who stood by her; to me, that attempt only confirms what many people know, they’re all children and like children, they don’t understand how serious the effects of an accusation like that can have, Slazo’s career is ruined, whether they meant to do that or not, and they DID because its rape he was accused of, the deed is done.
Maybe it’s because I grew up in a different environment, or maybe it’s because I plan to have a career in law enforcement, I don’t know. But what I DO know, is that people are incredibly misinformed, they don’t take that extra mile to question people when they make serious allegations. With Slazo, this girl didn’t go the police, there’s no record of her contacting the police, filing a report, nothing from her; but yet, people chose to believe her. Instead of making sure if the accusation was legit, very few people demanded proof that she went to law enforcement first before going online. I’m well aware it’s incredibly difficult for victims of abuse to report their trauma and admit it happened to them online where you are vulnerable to intense scrutiny and skepticism. However, going online to slander or create libel against a person is disgusting, I'm talking about the people who do this knowing they’re not going to report it, hoping to gain “Justice”, it’s an act, a disgusting act. It happened with Tobuscus, a gaming YouTuber who even played a role in the annoying orange in Cartoon Network, had his life destroyed by some woman. Her claims were false, she intended to cause harm, and yet that event seems to slip everyone’s mind, these women need to be held accountable for their actions, they only hurt real victims.
I’d like to take note that I know little to nothing about these people, I am an outsider, I had to learn this and search for credible evidence. I don’t watch their videos, I don’t much care for them either, but I do care about how they ended up where they are now because those are very real things that can happen at a local scale, and that scares me.