Cancel Culture needs Cancelling

If you’ve been here for any length of time, you know how I try to embrace the grey and nuance of life, but on the internet that’s not always easy. It will come as no surprise that I think about death a lot, nor will it shock you that I tend to spiral about ethics. In the midst of many an existential crisis, I have found this video format of eating your last meal and talking about death really, really comforting! It is good to know that other humans have lived through all this, and that we are not alone in our worries.

Lately, these worry spirals have been circling around cancel culture- and I wanted to share this video by Anna Akana about why cancel culture should be cancelled! If you find yourself struggling with these topics, I also highly recommend the book ‘How to be Perfect’ by Michael Schur. You might know him from his work on TV shows such as The Office, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Rec, or The Good Place (the cast of which are included on the audiobook!!)

All this, of course, resulted in a poem:

ink and snow

I wanna trade friendship bracelets 
without thinking of the oil drilled to create them
But the ink and snow are so emulsified in my mind— 
I have never been able to digest or escape them
I want you to know that you can love in shades of morality 
and not grow passions only to sedate them
That you can disagree with someone’s behaviour 
And still refuse to hate them

I want my mind to believe me when I say
‘you don’t have to be perfect to be good’
But if I try to speak about these shades of grey 
I am scared I will be misunderstood

In this clustered chaos of consequences
I want to cling to the scraps of joy
Is that okay? Am I allowed? 
Or are these scraps I must also destroy?