I’m really interested in this topic. Or at least, I have a few relevant examples to share. The question is: Should a person be held accountable or punished for opinions or beliefs they held in the past simply because they were controversial?
My answer would be NO. That’s in the past and it’s just an opinion or belief about something, isn’t it? Besides, the prompt also explains that the person in question has become a better person in the present day. So, there has been a shift in thinking and perhaps a moral evolution. Let’s say someone in the past (due to age or a lack of perspective) supported an anarchist movement, but then, as they grew older, their values matured, and their way of thinking evolved as they gained more insight—it would certainly be unreasonable for them to face social punishment such as ‘cancellation’. Wouldn’t that make the person feel ‘somewhat pointless’ or even ‘disappointed’ with the social climate that judges them, even though they have grown and evolved?
I, too, have often regretted this. Because it frequently occurs within the realm of social media or in the smaller circles of influencers or artists, where they are judged for past tweets that are quite controversial, discovered by netizens in their digital footprint.
But remember, I would agree that this need not be done, provided there is a strong reason to believe they have genuinely improved.
However, unfortunately, netizens usually dig up the digital footprint of someone controversial because that person has caused trouble again; in other words, netizens need something to reinforce their belief that the person has indeed been problematic from the start, and the concrete evidence is their past social media posts. If that’s the case, for some reason I also feel that a person’s digital footprint is truly a double-edged sword.
That’s all I have to say on this topic. Thank you for reading. See you in the next topic.
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