Before I proceed, I will love to define cancel culture.
According to Wikipedia,
Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to have been "cancelled"
Hmm
Before now, social media used to be a fun place where people posted really funny jokes and met with old friends, then it became a place where people made fun of others in the name of bants, from bants came savagery after savagery came 'cancel culture.
A person's life, business, career and marriage could be brought to an abrupt end because he/she went contrary to the opinions of a person or a group of persons who see themselves as gods and custodians of what is right and wrong.
@Marcus Winkler @unsplash.com
These custodians of truth can range from professionals and experts in their various fields to nonentities.
Over the years I've seen all kinds of online bullies, but the ones that stood out for me are the;
Gender propagandists
Political propagandists and
Clout chasers.
The gender activist/propagandist;
Don't be fooled by the activists they claim to be, because they don't give a rat ass about anyone but themselves.
I often refer to them as online sleeping lions/lionesses; they are always asleep and will only wake up when stories like this come online;
"A taxi driver from Ayetoro called Moshood killed his wife Kudirat because she refused to cook for him"
Or
"Chuka stabbed his soon to be ex-wife Nkechi because she cheated on him"
Then you begin to hear their screams and shrill from every corner.
'All men are scum'
the female gender activists would scream, as for the male gender activists, it's usually;
"Every man out there needs to carry out a DNA test on every one of their children, I'm sure at least one of those kids aren't his"
They will not hesitate to squeeze out the juice from stories like this until they are sure it's white and dry, they also never hesitate to make it all about themselves.
"That's how my ex Ebuka treated me, I can never trust any man born of a woman"
"My ex Folake slept with my uncle, I have forgiven my Uncle, a long time ago I mean, men must be men, but you see Folake, I can't forgive”
'This is the same reason I dumped my ex, she is not humble, someone who does not want cook for my friends or wake up in the middle of the night to cook for me, I will never spend a dime on a girl again"
Sometimes their stories may sound very true and emotional, I used to fall for their gimmicks and console them in their comment sections after reading their sob stories until I started noticing a pattern and seeing lots of discrepancies in these stories. Of course, people who knew me personally often came out with facts about them which will make you cringe.
These people can sometimes get involved in the fight against social injustice but the real truth is, they mostly or only fight for cases that will push them to the limelight, so if you are a victim of abuse whose story isn't sensational or your abuser isn't a celebrity or a rich person: please don't go close to them, you do not fall under the category of people they need.
I mean, the goal is to be the next Maya Angelou, be on TV or at least own a big NGO, they cannot attain all these by handling ‘minor cases'.
The next is the political propagandists
and ‘career people' their major agenda is to go into politics, sell books, eBooks, hold big seminars and conferences
What they lack in common sense, they make it up in speaking or tweeting eloquently and in the later stage of their popularity, they begin to act haughtily.
They mask their ignorance behind the fact that they are educated and knowledgeable in politics even when their knowledge isn't whole.
Not only will they propagate their opinions as to the truth; they will bash the ruling political class or any politician who is of no use to them but will not hesitate to directly or indirectly and assert their main man/woman as the next best thing even when the person they are hailing is no different or sometimes worse than the person they have been bashing.
These people also have a caucus online, they have minions whom they usually send to troll people that hold contrary opinions to them especially when they find out the person may be a threat to their popularity.
If you think this isn't true, tweet consistently about the ills of society and in a very simple manner say something bad about a dishonest politician, and see what happens next!
Last but not least are the Clout chasers.
These people are popular for being popular, they will do anything for popularity and will drag you to filth for no reason. They are ready to lie, stage a quarrel and disagree with everyone for the sake of popularity.
Their highest ambition is to be an influencer even when they lack what it takes to be one.
These three categories of people have not only succeeded in making social media toxic for sane people, but they also make it difficult for people to get accurate information, a renowned Journalist can be a propagandist, which makes it extremely dangerous!
They claim to support human rights but will do their possible best to shut down or silence anyone who disagrees with them even to the point of cancelling and condemning them.
Cancel culture is terrible and a menace to society but the sad truth is, it may not be ending anytime soon because we all seem to be enjoying it, there is hardly any voice reasoning these days; many people derive joy in tearing others down and the sane ones are too afraid to speak hence these narcissists keep spreading their tentacles in the name of expressing their right to free speech.
Please download and read my book titled
Beyond Agadez:
The untold story of the victims of human trafficking and organized crimes in Nigeria.
On Okadabooks and Amazon Kindle