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I used to think cancel culture was just for celebrities until my local bakery got called out
There's this little bakery on Main Street I've been going to for about 3 years. Last month someone posted on Nextdoor that the owner had made a racist comment to a customer back in 2019. Within a week, they lost half their business. I saw the before and after so clearly. Before, I'd wait in line for 10 minutes on a Saturday morning. After, I walked right up to the counter. I actually talked to the owner about it and she admitted she'd said something stupid and apologized to the person right away back then. It got me thinking. Is it fair to ruin someone's entire livelihood over one bad moment from years ago when they already made amends? Has anyone else seen this kind of local cancellation happen in their town?
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grantadams1mo ago
That story about the bakery hits close to home because I've noticed this same pattern creeping into everything lately. My neighbor got fired from his job at a hardware store last year because someone dug up a Facebook post he made in 2016 about a sports team losing. It was a dumb joke but nothing racist or hateful. The thing is, we've built this system where one screenshot from years ago can override years of actual behavior and growth. People make mistakes, they learn, they apologize, and that should count for something. But now it feels like we're all walking around with a permanent record that never gets erased. The bakery owner owned up to her mistake and made it right at the time, and that should be the end of the story not the beginning.
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miles_sanchez1mo ago
My buddy still brings up a tweet I made in 2014 about pineapple on pizza like I committed a war crime, so I feel this. I literally can't delete the cringe from my past fast enough, and I was just being a dumb 22 year old, not even anything actually bad. It's wild how one dumb joke from a decade ago can follow you around like a bad smell, even if you've changed your entire personality since then. People really do need to let folks grow up without holding their past self against them forever.
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