No matter how hard we try, we’re going to make some pretty embarrassing mistakes sometimes.
But while that can be a little hard to accept no matter how many times it happens, it gets so much worse when that mistake takes place on a public platform. Because the more that people hate what we have to share with them, the more likely we are to experience some degree of cancellation.
But while that’s a somewhat rare event for everyday folks like us, it’s a lot more likely to happen when your entire life is spent in the public eye. And so while there are no shortage of people adding in their two cents about cancel culture, it’s no surprise that the loudest voices discussing it tend to be celebrities .
And although Kevin Hart is among the famous names with little love for cancel culture, his own experiences with it have apparently shown him that it’s not as powerful as it seems.
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During an interview with *The Sunday Times*, Hart suggested that cancel culture holds people to unrealistically high standards.
As he put it , “When did we get to a point where life was supposed to be perfect? Where people were supposed to operate perfectly all the time? I don’t understand.”
He went on to say that he doesn’t expect perfection from anyone in his life, including his children, wife, friends, or employees. And that’s because learning from their mistakes is the primary way that people grow from them.
He also emphasized that there are monstrous and harmful acts that do deserve long-term consequences, but that the shaming that comes from cancel culture isn’t limited to those.
So when people seek to make each other’s careers harder for any “nonsense” they say, Hart’s response is, “Shut the [expletive] up! What are you talking about?”
In his words, “It’s like jail. People get locked up so they can be taught a lesson. When they get out, they are supposed to be better.
“But if they come out and people go, ‘I’m not giving you a job because you were in jail’ – then what the [expletive] did I go to jail for? That was my punishment – how do you not give those people a shot?”
But while these responses might make him sound passionate about the issue, his own experiences with cancel culture have given him little reason to care about it.
As he said, “I’ve been cancelled, what, three or four times? Never bothered. If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will. Personally? That’s not how I operate. I understand people are human. Everyone can change.”
Hart famously stepped down from a gig hosting the 2019 Oscars after some homophobic tweets that he had already apologized for resurfaced again.
And while he acknowledges that there’s nothing he can do if people want to continue dredging up those tweets yet again, he also thinks that cancel culture’s emphasis on wrongdoing doesn’t give people room to redeem themselves.
As he put it, “They’re saying that all life should be over because of a mistake? Your life should end and there should be no opportunity to change? What are you talking about? And who are you to make that decision?”
h/t: The Sunday Times
