Cancel culture from what I’ve seen is a method instigators used to to diminish the reputation of of public figures or brands that have a platform. Unfortunately, too often, the inflammatory remarks of one person can spread like wildfire which mostly results in said brand being tarnished.
I’ll give an example, and this happened here on the forums by the way. One person, let’s call them “X” tried to oust me for a comment I made about 2 years. I’ll admit that I was naive about the underlying nature of the comment I posted and I was contacted by a forums moderator about the situation, and understood my wrongdoing. It was a swift and peaceful settlement and I have learned my lesson from that issue henceforth. I then come to find out that 3 months after the whole debacle, this person named X told me off to some other creators who I was in the middle of playing a Roleplaying game with in private. The owner of said RP reached out to me about what X told them, and I might get voted of the RP due to the repercussions of what was stated. I explained my case to the owner privately and when it came time to iron out this issue with X face to face with the owner demanding us to find common ground, X decided he was better off excusing himself from the RP in an attempt to escape the issue THEY caused all because he didn’t want to face backlash from me. So the both of us ended up leaving the RP to avoid further conflict.
The reason I bring this up is because that in of itself is my firsthand experience delving into the muddy waters of “cancel culture”. Sometimes, when people are ostracized on social platforms, people who were support of the brand they subscribed to end up leaving due to misinformation. Is it more appropriate to be “the bigger person” in such as case and keep the ball rolling? Sure. However I would argue that by simply ignoring trolls who seek to ruin your reputation for an incident that happened way off in the past (especially when you acknowledge and learn why scrutiny was there in the first place) you have to be aggressive with said trolls because in the off chance that they try to make you lose followers or find a reason to hate on you, you have every right to stand your ground against those who may prove to be an obstacle to your success.