2023 elections and the rise of ‘cancel culture’
They’re with us? Fine. They’re not with us? Cancel them.
For much of human history, people have always disagreed with one another’s perceptions of certain matters. Whether it is money, religion, sex, politics, or other, people do not always hold similar opinions. Even when they do agree, there are usually still areas where their opinions have elements of dissimilitude. This nature is human. Sometimes, this circumstance has led to people ostracising or shunning one another – simply because they have dissimilar views on issues.
Ostracism was a famous procedure practised during the Athenian democracy in ancient Athens around 6 BC. It was the process by which any citizen, including political leaders, could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for 10 years. Once a year, Athenians would nominate people they felt threatened democracy, because of political differences, dishonesty or general dislike. It was used to neutralise someone thought to be a threat to the state.
The word “ostracism” has evolved to mean the various cases of social shunning, and today, the new term in town is “cancel culture.” The internet, precisely social media, has, beyond doubt, boosted this phenomenon.
Cancel culture is a form of boycott. It means “cancelling” or shunning a person, brand, organisation or anything else due to an action that a group of people consider offensive or displeasing. In other words, it means withdrawing support for someone, usually a public figure, or a company after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Today, this cancelling takes place on social media. Sometimes, the action or word that leads to cancelling someone is either actual or perceived.
There is another term called the “call-out culture.” In this case, someone’s attention is being called to wrongdoing and giving them a chance to retrace their step. In cancel culture, people are not given this opportunity. They are stoned to death right before they even make an explanation for their action.
Over the last few years, cancel culture is a social media trend that has gained momentum, placing public figures, celebrities, companies and even the media under a microscope of political correctness.
Take the case of JK Rowling, the famous author of Harry Potter, for instance. She has been ‘cancelled’ by many of her fans and institutions across the world since 2019 after she tweeted her support for a woman, Maya Forstater, who allegedly has a history of making comments considered transphobic.
Ms Forstater, a British researcher, had lost her job at a nonprofit think tank following a series of tweets that were criticised as transphobic. When she filed a suit against the think tank, the Center for Global Development, which works to reduce global poverty, a judge ruled against her, stating that her speech violated the dignity of transgender people and was not protected under United Kingdom law.
Rowling, apparently upset by the judge’s decision, tweeted in support of Forstater. The author’s public support of Forstater sparked accusations of transphobia from LGBTQ advocates. Many commented that it is “dangerous” for a public figure like Rowling to voice her support for Forstater.
Just yesterday, 13 October, an anonymous Twitter user asked Rowling: “How do you sleep at night knowing you’ve lost a whole audience from buying your books?”
In response, the author said: “I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”
Cancel culture and race to 2023 elections
There have been scores of cancel culture cases before and after Rowling’s. And of recent, the trend has caught fire in Nigeria, especially in the race for the 2023 presidential election.
Debatably, the top three political parties that have the brightest chances of being successful at the polls are the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP). The leading parties would probably have been limited to the first two as has been the case in previous elections, but Labour Party entered the fold after the emergence of Peter Obi as the party’s candidate.
It is beyond question that the citizens want a change in the 2023 election. They want someone they believe can address the challenges bedevilling the economy, security, infrastructure, etc – someone with the Midas touch.
Analysts predict that one of Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Bola Tinubu of the APC, or Obi of the LP will win the presidential election. The trio have millions of followers who have been rigorously campaigning for them. A large part of these campaigns is taking place on social media.
And then comes the rise of the cancel culture. Many public figures and celebrities are getting cancelled for supporting a candidate that is deemed unworthy of being voted to the highest office.
Recently, an army of followers of Obi, who is being posed as a revolutionary, though part of the political elite in the country, went down hard on Joke Silva, a Nollywood actress who controlled the screen for decades, for her support for Tinubu. There are plenty of other celebrities and public figures who are being cancelled for their support of a particular candidate.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, has been a subject of many controversies, from being an alleged drug lord to having a weird control of the state’s resources and political appointees, even though he’s not in power. Atiku, a former customs official who later became the vice president of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has also been accused of corruption. Obi was named in the Pandora Papers, but no criminal case has ever been filed against him even after President Muhammadu Buhari directed the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to investigate him and others named in the Pandora Papers.
Personally, I am not a supporter of Atiku, Tinubu or Obi. I could take a decision as the days go by and I have a strong reason for supporting any of the candidates. I could also support a candidate who is not among the top three. This is what democracy is all about, after all.
And so my take is this: we won’t always agree on the choice of candidate for the 2023 presidential election. This is good. It is the beauty of democracy. It is even dangerous for all to support a lone candidate. I only feel that rather than disparage someone for their choice, we can either convince them to go with our choice or just simply respect their choice. As it has been said by a number of professors, politicians, journalists and activists, cancel culture often differs from accountability and often turns into bullying.
I will close this by quoting former US President Barack Obama and Pope Francis.
“People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids and, you know, share certain things with you,” said Obama.
Pope Francis said that cancel culture is a form of “ideological colonisation,” one that leaves no room for freedom of expression, saying that it “ends up cancelling all sense of identity.”
Thank you for reading this piece. While I wait for your feedback, I urge you to share it with your network on social media. Don’t forget to also subscribe, if you haven’t, and encourage others to do so.
I’ll see you next week.
Thanks, thanks.
J
Even J.K Rowling got cancelled for expressing her honest, personal views on the obscene gender politics and perversions. Thankfully, it helped her sell more books.
Cancel culture is the weapon of cowards, males and females psychologically stuck at age 13. They plod through adulthood with the emotional maturity of adolescents. I call them foetal adults. They can't bear contradiction or alternative perspectives. They are perpetually smitten with herd bromides and mob tyranny. They are a pitiful band of malformed adults.