Cancel culture vs creators

[Chocolate]

In this age of social media; it’ll only take a few clicks and your name for other people to dig up some wrong things you did in the past. What will you do as an artist if you were cancel for a mistake happened in your past?

For example, you did something wrong to someone. Now fans are leaving you hate comments, burning your books, and banning your series in a country. What will you do in that instant?

[descendantsofether]

Keep on keeping on. Can't control the actions of others, only the actions of myself. Eventually people will move on to the next thing to get mad over and forget all about it.

[Mallory]

I mean, I'm gonna be real, the only time I've ever seen someone actually get "cancelled" is when they do something dumb, get called on it, and then dig in and/or throw a tantrum. Any time anyone is like "my bad, I'm sorry, I made a mistake and I will learn and try to be better", there's usually some backlash, a bit of rah-rah, and then a few days later (almost) everyone forgets (except for a few weirdos) and moves on and you're back on whatever program you were going for.

Like yeah it stings to mess up and it stings doubly to have to be candid about your mistake (it's just a normal human reaction), but I guarantee it's waaay easier for you (psychologically and professionally) if you just own up to it, learn from it and move on.

[Lensing]

Learn to ignore it.
That´s one reason why show business is harder for people who get famous over night
compared to people who work their way up slowly.
Cancel culture is not something new, it always existed, they just didn´t name it or talk
about it so much like today

In some cases cancel culture is about things someone did in their past,
the problem is that cancel culture is about art/expression/words

[river121693]

This is mostly true, but I’ve also seen it weaponized or indulged in in bad faith. What happened to Lindsay Ellis for example. Cancelling in this case is clearly done in bad faith, but I think the public shaming aspect of “calling out” combined with the way social media empower this behavior can make calling out harmful.

Not saying calling out in general is bad, since that has been misused to demonize people trying to cancel legitimately harmful people, but I do think we have to look at specific situations

A good alternative I’ve seen is “calling in”, where community members hold themselves responsible to one another and make good faith, empathetic conversation with the problematic person to make them understand what they did wrong.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Time for "Noise cancellation" I guess.

Though if it is something that actually bad decisions (not your words taken out of context, or past teenage stupidity because you just had access to internet and did not know English well that you thought saying some words is okay) I still think you have to address it somehow, but do not exacerbate it.

What is this human psychology thing that makes them want to feel morally superior and more correct that others? I cannot wait for cats to take over the world.

[Chocolate]

Yep, the same happened to AOT’s creator, Isayama. He’s not canceled, but has been receiving death threats from fans because of the many controversy in the manga and anime. I’m scared of using my real name for my comic to be honest.

[Lensing]

Many creators work under a different name when they create sexual content.
It´s sad when you think about it

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I think you can use pseudonym, even in traditional publishing
Yet, once you got too popular, people will eventually know who are you or guess who you are. Maybe they can also appear in front your house holding some signs—who knows.
However, when you're successful, popular, and rich enough, you can just close your ears with your money and achievements. No amount of screeching cannot defeat the fact that you're more accomplished and richer than them. You can also actually sue people for threats or trespassing without much financial damage if you think things have escalated too much, and if you're from those types of countries, you can easily put them in jail as well with all that money. Even if you have to "resign" from your position and the crowd wins, you still have money and can do other things.

Honestly, one who should fear more about this thing is small creators. They cannot defend themselves as well as the big ones. Especially with the envy plus "crab-in-a-bucket" mentality between fellow small creators, the nature of social media, and reactive tendencies of making a mountain out of a mole hill.

[SagaHolmgaard]

The people trying to cancel you are going to get off on seeing you react to them. And they probably have a skewed , black and white sense of morality and they aren't going to be interested in hearing what you have to have to say for youself (someone sending you death threats over a mistake you made, isn't going to over the morality in their own actions. They just want to harass you for what you did)
If there's a genuine mistake made, like if I said something that I then realize was harmful, an apology can be in order. But don't interract with the harassers, that's what they want. And they WILL turn what you say against you. Ignore, block, mute. Move along with your life. Recognize that people looking to cancel you will find reasons to critique you, or they will make things up. And their idiotic behaviour is not your responsibility, and it's not your job to argue with them. They're not interested in listening you, so don't bother trying.

[redfish]

I take 2 weeks off and hope they lose interest and forget about me by then

[surenlicious]

Non-black people using 'cancel culture' in the absolute wrong way again huh.

Simply put, holding somebody ACCOUNTABLE for their actions is NOT "cancel culture". And that's all this is, holding people accountable for being an absolute fuckshit. Y'all really keep on assuming people are out for a witchhunt, while its about people needing to actually behave like normal humans beings and need to get their act together when they screw up.

Because whenever somebody screws up, its nearly always against minorities. It's nearly always about ableism, racism or any kind of biggotry these very same people get away with because their followers like to lick their heels so much... Y'all really think people out here hunting for creators, but those same creators are being kept off the hook by their fanbase having formed parasocial relationships with 'em and let them say the most heinous shite and are even applauding that same behavior.

I truly feel the meaning of this word has become so twisted its being used in the most wrong sense and people (especially non-black people) use it for tantrums against folks...

[redfish]

I mean the Linsday Ellis situation is a very good example of cancel culture. She mad a comment comparing the movie Raya the last dragon and ATLA, some people of South Eastern Asia commented this was a bit of a stereotyped comparison to make, to which then anyone who ever had a problem with Linsday to come out of the woodworks and weaponize it to cancel her, and completely derailed the original issues regarding the movie.

[NickRowler]

If people are trying to “cancel” you over something dumb or cringy you said years ago, then you should be the better person and show that you have changed as a person and address your past mistakes.

However, there are people who sort of deserve the backlash. Like adult men who act wildly inappropriate to underage fans. Or all the people involved in the hair gummy vitamins drama on YouTube.

[redfish]

I don't know why you have to say this is an issue especially for black people when you also acknowledge it's regarding other minority groups too.

[masi]

I was pretty mad with Lindsay Ellis situation, and these people who called out supposedly racist tweet are majority white, so like, what was that about? I’m a southeast asian and I critiqued Raya much harder than Lindsay did lmao. I am still angry about that tbh.

[VibrantFox]

not answering on suren's behalf but given that even in bipoc spaces there are still instances of rampant antiblackness it makes it something worth noting and addressing which again is one of the reasons why people freely tossing around the phrase "cancel culture" in place of what is often times accountability is incredibly frustrating

like no one is purposefully trying to minimize the struggles, hardships or what have you of other minority groups but intersectionality is often overlooked and ignored and because of conscious or subconscious ignorance there's things that happen which aren't properly addressed or dealt with in a matter that leads to an actual resolution hence the pointing out of how and why things are often swept under the rug (again especially when it relates to black folks)

like without intent to derail the topic i can name several instances just this month (which in the us is presently black history month) where overt antiblackness was witnessed and ignored and when addressed was either called or referred to as "cancel culture" or "the woke mob" or what have you. so it's often not people going out looking and waiting for someone to mess up to make a big scene out of things it's people actively bearing witness to or personally experiencing something and then being called all out their name for trying to speak up on it

[fleurravenbooks]

absolutely!! It depends on why is person getting canceled, but i noticed that a lot of big creators (not on tapas) get "canceled" for something harmful, but they just continue like nothing happened, not even apologize

[UrMom]

Honestly, I have this fear in the back of my mind that I'll get blasted for my comic. x'D I've seen artists and writers get dragged just for transgressive work, not being progressive enough, making tiny mistakes, being adults generally making adult art/fiction, or not representing a minority in a way certain people want. (Usually people not even in that minority, or dumb kids with no life experience.)

It's messed up because these people trying to mind their own business get death threats, stalked, harassed and sometimes doxxed, which is absolutely illegal but most victims can't afford taking the issue to court. Plus it's hard to make a case out of online discourse, which is even harder to do if the person is considered a public figure.

Back to the question though, I don't really know what I'd do, it depends on the severity but I'm super smalltime so it would be easy to take me out if anyone tried to do some hardball stuff. There was a person on Twitter who was trying to get some Youtube drama folks to make a video about me, @ing them about how dangerous my comic is, while calling me a bigot and pedophile, but they were ignored from what I saw. (Haven't seen any videos or hate mobs yet, so I assume they weren't taken seriously.) I like to keep a low profile just for my own privacy, so there isn't a whole lot of incriminating stuff anyone can find on me... unless someone can find my many different usernames over the years, and somehow dig out crap from my teens, which stuff like that is totally possible if the person is skilled enough. Either way I'd probably either keep trying to do my thing, or ghost for a bit if the situation gets too out of hand.

What's extra gross is these totally unsupervised kids and unhinged adults using something someone said or did 10+ years ago, most likely when the victim was in a bad mental state or dangerous situation, acting like they're still like that even though it's not true. Even more messed up is the times when it works, and the person gets gang banged by a mob expecting an apology, but don't relent even if the person complies. Like, jesus dude! It was just an artist who said gay guys were hot when they were 14, not a staff member of the Fort Simpson Indian Residential School who contributed in the murder of thousands of indigenous kids.

Edit:

Not saying calling out in general is bad, since that has been misused to demonize people trying to cancel legitimately harmful people, but I do think we have to look at specific situations

I kinda disagree. I believe call-outs in general are bad, most of the time they're children totally overblowing a small issue for the blood sport, misunderstanding/misusing law to claim someone is a criminal when they're not, or interfering in something that should be handled by the police. The latter usually resulting in the person abandoning/deleting their accounts, and never seeing justice because these dumb kids just attacked them rather than gathering evidence, guaranteeing that the person will be able to continue offending in the future. Call-outs are a terrible idea.

[surenlicious]

Thank you for elaborating it perfectly.