A Canceled Teen

This was a tough read. The cancel culture lies on a bed of unforgiveness and there is no recourse for correction if falsely accused. Court of public opinion where your peers judge but are not prepared to judge. Mob mentality.

High school was such an awful time. The only thing worse was middle school.

All the behaviors in this article aren't new. They're just a new lens for the same thing that's always been going on - pick an out-group, punish the out-group, everybody else feels better about themselves. This is classic high school stuff. Look at how the words are used: "Abusers" and "victims". Might as well be "jocks" and "nerds". And who do the kids ultimately hate most? "Admin." Yeah. Who has ever liked their high school admin?

The only thing different, I suppose, is that at least the people who are ostracized now are the ones who allegedly did actually bad things, rather than the ones who listen to weird music or are fat or don't have wealthy parents or whatever else. And not being in school for a couple years has meant some social growth that usually happens hasn't, or has happened unevenly.

Guess that's progress?

What a mess. I can see why the principal/s quit.

I think this is a really good article to help those not in HS to understand the lives that the current teens are going through. The kids are not alright, it seems.

One point that was made in the comments of the article seems to be a good one: isn't this just regular bullying?

If so, it seems a bit more 'permanent' than previous incarnations of bullying. But, only time will really tell. Diego tries, somewhat successfully, to escape his school and reputation. How long that holds is still hard to determine.

If this is just what bullying look like now (I suspect it does), then what is to be done? Per the article, Diego was very repentant and sorry for what wrong he committed. Fiona even forgives him and accepts repentance. But there doesn't seem to be a social mechanism to gain forgiveness from the group when it comes to sexual offenses/crimes especially. Not in schools and not in the larger society of the US.

Some social mechanism is needed outside of the criminal justice system for offenders to be reintegrated.

As we see in the article, Diego becomes very isolated and lonely as a result of his offense. I fear that this version of bullying/cancelling has a bad reaction with other ingredients like incel-like online forums and wide open gun laws.

This article is one Big Lie. Cancel culture is a right-wing myth. It spreads fascism.