Digging up old posts to ‘cancel’ someone devalues the concept of growth

ICYMI, Maine Mendoza has been the target of a frankly idiotic practice, where one’s old social media posts are used to ‘cancel’ an individual. In Maine’s case, it was a series of decade-old tweets which bore remarks considered homophobic and racist.

This epidemic of digging up the past to discredit the present is not unheard of. It happened to Kevin Hart, whose decade-old tweets cost him an Oscar hosting gig. James Gunn got fired from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for the same reason, only to be rehired by Disney.

For her part, Maine has since apologized for any offense caused while saying that she has since changed over the years.

Through the years, I have learned to be more careful with my thoughts and words – and how it would affect the people around me. Hope you hear me out this time. Praying for everyone’s safety and sanity in these trying times.

— Maine Mendoza (@mainedcm) April 16, 2021

My hate for cancel culture is no secret. It’s why I despise Twitter in general. Born out of a misguided sense of ‘justice’, this modern-day witch hunt burns individuals over mistakes while missing out on two crucial realities: 1) people can be educated and 2) they can grow as a person.

This aura of moral superiority, in the words of actress Jameela Jamil, is ‘so f*cking stupid’. So what if a then-16-year-old said dumb things? We’ve all had our shortcomings when we were young and immature.

We thought cursing was cool. Our concept of being a badass was smoking and skipping classes. We couldn’t wait to grow up so we can buy our own alcohol, only to later realize that adulting is mostly about paying bills and having an existential crisis.

Point is, if we can outgrow our awkward goth and jejemon phases, then so can we with our juvenile tendencies. Hell, even now I’m in my 20s, I could remember a dozen cringy decisions I’ve made, some barely a year old, which I would’ve loved to kick myself in the nads for.

Cancel culture sees people as perfect, pre-packaged androids, meant to arrive fully informed about everything. When in reality, we are very much flawed human beings, who are shaped by our decisions and experiences, both good and bad.

What’s truly important then is our capacity for character development. Has Maine Mendoza ever been involved in a similar controversy, before these jackasses dug up tweets from ten years ago? No? Then let sleeping dogs lie.

Besides, if most of your waking moments are spent digging up age-old dirt on people whom you barely know, then I’d say you have bigger problems than the tweet you just unearthed.

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Source: we the pvblic