'People are so quick to throw stones': The hypocrisy of cancel culture on social media

'Cancel culture' has risen to prominence over the past few years, thanks to social media.

The term refers to a person being ostracised, or rather 'cancelled', as a result of something offensive they have said or done. Chrissy Teigen, Kevin Hart and JK Rowling are some of the big names who have faced the wrath of cancel culture.

While it is fair to disagree with someone's actions, in the age of social media, it can seem like you will be cancelled for saying anything out of pocket. Which begs the question, does the punishment fit the crime?

On this week's segment of Talking Honey, the 9Honey panel, consisting of Shelly Horton, Maria Thattil, John Aiken and Ben Fordham discuss the problem with this phenomenon.

You can watch the discussion in the clip above.

"I vote for cancel culture to get cancelled," Horton commenced. "Guess what, people? It's OK to be a little bit offended. Life isn't peachy all the time."

Horton then panned the question to Fordham, asking, "Now, Ben, you give your opinion daily. Are you ever afraid of getting cancelled?"

"I've been canceled so many times," the 2GB host joked. "I think the more that you say what you really think, the more people appreciate that. I think there's a real appetite out there in the community for people to say what they really think."

Fordham argued there is a "common-sense approach" to everything, so generally members of the public should be able to distinguish the people with malicious intent from those who simply have strong opinions.

"People understand the difference between between someone who's got an opinion and then someone who is out to cause harm to someone," he concluded.

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Thattil echoed Fordham's sentiments, saying, "I think if somebody is actively and consistently abusing power, oppressing and hurting others, and they have absolutely no remorse for the harm they're causing, then I think they should lose a bit of cultural cachet."

She argued cancel culture has become less about holding people accountable and more about ostracising people based on their opposing views.

"For the most part, cancel culture is this thing that just attacks people for opposing views," she explained.

"It's like you make a little mistake, or you slip up, and it's almost always something someone can learn and evolve from. But in the digital climate, people are so quick to judge and throw stones."

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Horton used the example of J.K Rowling to illustrate her argument, saying, "I do not like JK Rowling's opinion on trans women at all. So my response to that is I don't follow her on social media and that's about it. I get on with my day."

Horton asked Aiken, "How many people default to outrage when really they could just tune out?"

"I think it's probably a loud minority," he responded. "It's not the majority of people that are running around with this outrage. But when this minority do speak, it typically gets heard, because it is a lot of noise."

The discussion then turned to Kevin Hart's controversial homophobic tweets, and the panel had a lot to say.

Watch the rest of the clip to see how the conversation played out.