The celebrity life looks satisfying when observing it from a computer screen. The attention,
the money, the success, the travel, it all seems to be the ultimate way to live. Hence why most of
us strive to achieve that type of lifestyle, but just like with most things that are too good to
be true, there’s a dark side that we don’t see. The pictures you see on Instagram, for instance,
could never, ever tell the full story. The videos you watch on Youtube, this one being an example,
could never accurately portray the type of person I really am in real life. You might say,
“Made2Express is such a kind, loving, inspiring person” but how do you know for a fact that I am
the same person you see online in real life? All you have are these videos to base your overall
opinion on me. For all you know, it could all be completely fake, it could be a character,
in fact, I would argue, it is a character. Most, if not all of us play characters. This
might be difficult for people to admit to, but it is the truth. Authenticity is very tricky,
especially when you have a job to do. People have this idea of who you are,
and because you work for a business it would be wise for you to continue pleasing your
audience with the popular character you play, but there also might be a part of you that is
dying to express another aspect of yourself that people never thought was inside of you. What’s my
point? There’s only so much you can determine from a tv screen, or a computer screen. Because we have
this idea of who our favorite celebrities are, is why it is so shocking when a story comes out
about them doing something controversial. When in reality, at the end of the day, we are all human,
and we all make mistakes. Sounds profound? Well, cancel culture doesn’t give a damn about that.
Nowadays, you could donate a billion dollars to charity,
find a cure for cancer, and grow a million trees, but if you slip up and do or say one
thing the average person doesn’t agree with, your career is over, and your ass is gone.
I have found a Simpsons episode that accurately portrays what modern day cancel culture
is like. It’s called Homer Badman, and today, I’m going to talk about how brilliant it is.
If you’re someone who has dreams of being famous, maybe after this video
you will consider the possibility that your life isn’t so stressful after all.
We skip to the part where the episode gets interesting. Homer drives a babysitter back to
her home. After she gets dropped off, he reaches over to grab a piece of candy stuck to her pants.
This catches the babysitter off guard. From her perspective the awkward situation
seems perverted, and creepy. So she storms off getting the wrong idea.
I bet you can guess where this leads. The next day,
while Homer and his family are chilling, minding their own business, an angry mob
arrives at his house, demanding for justice done for quote unquote “sexually harassing a woman”.
There’s no evidence for this angry mob other than, “welp, an attractive woman said this
person harassed her so she must be right”. That’s the main problem I have with cancel culture.
Usually when it happens on Twitter, for instance, it begins with a “he said, she said” type of
situation, and that ultimately escalates based on lies, and false assumptions by people who just
have nothing better to do with their lives. It becomes a game where favoritism wins over facts.
“But Made2, most of the time these people that get hate on, for no reason, are rich
and famous, so why would they care?” Well, let's say I was the one that got accused for something
I didn’t even do. You might think, “well, just ignore it, you know you’re innocent, so go back to
living your normal life” but the thing is, I can’t do that even if I wanted to. Because everywhere
I go, everywhere I look on the internet, there is always going to be another video, another article,
more people trying to capitalize on my unfortunate situation for their entertainment, and for profit.
Out of nowhere, a news company calls Homer claiming they would like to help him express
his side of the story, so Homer goes on TV to try and clear his name,
but for most news outlets the truth is too boring and wouldn’t give them any ratings so
they have to trust his words in a way that makes him seem like the bad guy.
At this point, Homer’s life is pretty much ruined. Memes are being made about him, and we all know once the memes start,
all the immature 10 year olds are going to bandwagon the hate train.
Movies are being made as well, and of course, this is free material for a talk show.
It’s so easy to brush this over and say, "it’s exaggerated because it’s a cartoon, bro”.
No, this is real life. One assumption, one lie, one story can change an entire life to
the point of no return. To the point where they have no other option but to move somewhere that
they don’t want to move to or to end the pain in ways that I can’t describe on this website.
The more people buy into the lies, the more powerless that person feels. This episode
does a great job of demonstrating that sense of hopelessness. You see, it’s not just people that
Homer doesn’t know making a fool out of him, but even his family start to look at him differently.
The best part is how this episode ends. Some random guy finds the tape that shows what
really happened that one awkward night, so the first chance Homer gets he shows it to
the babysitter to finally clear his name. What I find hilarious is even after being proven wrong,
even after destroying his life, this pathetic woman can’t even give a proper apology.
Nobody gives Homer the proper apology he deserves, and even if they did, it would never equal the
amount of damage that was already done. Now, in this case, Homer didn’t do anything wrong,
but what about situations where someone is exposed for a mistake they made in their past? Does that
person deserve to have their career shut down? The answer to that question is not for me to decide,
but I will be the first one to say I am not perfect, I have made, and still do
make mistakes, and chances are, if you’re watching this video, you do as well. Everybody’s got a dark
secret, regrettable memories that they will never admit to anyone, and that’s smart
because they understand the consequences. They understand that society is not very forgiving,
and it’s unfortunate because if it was, the world would have more authenticity, and people wouldn’t
be afraid to express their true selves. The only thing you can possibly do when being cancelled
is admit to your mistakes, apologize, forgive yourself, and move on. After that,
there’s not much you can do.
I know there are going to be trolls saying this video is trying to justify any sort of criminal activity,
desperately trying whatever they can to make sense out of the toxicity of cancel culture,
but that’s the current state of the internet. Hopefully we can evolve to a much more
understanding place, but until then, you live and learn, ignore the trolls, and do you.
This was Made2Express, thanks for watching.