Does canceling someone for old tweets ignore growth? My view has flipped twice now

I used to think people should be held accountable for anything they posted online, no matter how old. Back in 2018, I saw a comedian get canceled for a joke from 2010 that I thought was genuinely offensive. But after my own niece showed me some of her cringey posts from high school last year, I started wondering if we all deserve a second chance. Now I lean toward judging people on their recent actions and what they say today, not what they tweeted a decade ago. At the same time, I see the flip side - if someone keeps repeating the same harmful stuff without learning, then maybe the old posts do show a pattern. The tricky part is figuring out where the line is between a one-time mistake and a real character flaw. How do you all decide if someone has actually changed, or if they're just hiding their old views until the heat dies down?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewkim1mo agoTop Commenter

Man, I feel that so much. Looking back at my own MySpace posts from 2008 makes me cringe so hard I can barely stand it. It's wild how we expect kids to have fully formed adult opinions when our brains are still scrambled eggs at that age.

the_zara1mo ago

Drove past my old high school last week and saw a bunch of kids doing the same dumb stuff I did in 2008. Hard to cancel people for being young and stupid when we all were.