.Is there an ethical problem with cancel culture?

Read the case study and show the descriptive and normative distinctions as found below.

Case Study #1. Read the case. Then follow the instructions below to write about the descriptive versus normative distinctions

2-3 page response. See guiding questions below and how to analyze the case using descriptive and normative ethics (required!)

Questions to address in your essay:

1.Is there an ethical problem with cancel culture? What values are in conflict in this case study?

2.Is cancel culture socially just? Can an apology or remorse by the wrongdoer suffice to excuse them from being cancelled?

3.Communicating true information is an important goal of journalism. Even so, would it have been morally permissible for Calvin to leave the racist tweets out of his profile on King if additional donation opportunities for sick children could have followed?

4.How is cancel culture and its punishments like or unlike the judgments and punishments prevalent in the court system?

Beer Cans and Cancel Culture: The Ethics of the Carson King Case

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/ethicsproject/case-studies/cancel-culture.php

On ESPNs College GameDay program, a 24-year-olds sign requesting beer money went viral and raised more than a million dollars from amused fans. The football fan and beer-lover, Carson King, purchased just one case of beer with the funds and donated the rest to the Stead Family Childrens Hospital. Anheuser-Busch and Venmo matched the final sum, tripling the total donation (Ta, 2019). Initially, King was hailed as an Iowa Legend for his philanthropy.However, Des Moises Register reporter Aaron Calvin eventually uncovered and published two racist tweets that King wrote as a high school student, quickly sparking controversy. Calvins article ultimately led Anheuser-Busch to withdraw their public support for King, and although he retained some of his supporters, his previously glowing reputation was tarnished.

Kings story is an exemplary case of a rising phenomenon of public shaming known as cancel culture. After an accusation of problematic speech or action, an individual is cancelled from a social group by being boycotted and ostracized. John Hirschauer argued that Calvin intended to cancel King by publishing his tweets. Hirschauer declared that Calvins decision to highlight two obscure, inflammatory tweets from a mans adolescence of a sentiment that Calvin admits are not representative artifacts of the man being profiled, is the sort of spiteful gotcha thinking devoid of proportion that fuels cancel culture writ large (Hirschauer, 2019). In Hirschauers opinion, publishing the tweets was a malicious choice that disregarded Kings good deeds and personal growth.

The Des Moines Registers executive editor, Carol Hunter, disagrees. She believes that Calvin acted ethically by providing comprehensive information about a public figure of interest. She explains that The jokes were highly inappropriate and were public posts. Shouldnt that beacknowledged to all the people who had donated money to Kings cause or were planning to do
so? (Andrew and Zdanowicz, 2019). Hunter argues that donors have the right to know about the man asking for their money. After all, if donors know that their donations could be associated with racism, they might choose to give their money to other charities that share their values. She maintains that Calvins choice informed and empowered donors to make a better moral decision.

Calvins decision to publish Kings tweets could also be viewed as an effort to morally educate the public. A virtue of cancel culture is that it effectively signals that speech or behavior like Kings is unacceptable. It draws attention to problematic speech and punishes it, demonstrating to observers that they too should avoid such speech. On the other hand, the immediate cancellation of those who have made mistakes may not be the best way to educate them. By being shamed and isolated, they are cut off from informed and moderating influences. As a result, cancel culture may play a role in radicalizing individuals with problematic views and may actually discourage ethical growth.

Former President Barack Obama takes the latter view, explaining that cancel culture isnt a way to effect change in others behavior. Shortly after Kings rise to fame and fall from glory, Obama argued that, if all youre doing is casting stones, youre probably not going to get that far.Thats easy to do (Reub & Taylor, 2019). In essence, merely shaming people for their moral errors isnt enough to get someone to do better or to participate in the community in acceptable ways. According to Obama, Thats not activism. Thats not bringing about change (Reub & Taylor, 2019). By this view, Calvins publication of Kings tweets was not a noble act. Rather, it distracted attention from meaningful actionthe hospital fundraisingto a more petty controversy about past mistakes.

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