Serious question, does forgiving someone publicly make the cancellation less effective?

I was scrolling through Twitter last night and saw this influencer who got called out for some old tweets. She posted a long apology, and then the person she originally wronged replied saying she forgave her. But then the comments were split. Half said 'case closed, move on' and the other half said 'you can't just buy your way out with a forgiveness statement.' Got me thinking. If the person who was actually hurt accepts the apology and says it's fine, does the mob still have a right to keep going? Or is cancel culture just about the crowd's judgment at that point? I don't know, feels like the goalposts move.

2 comments

2 Comments

bennett.patricia1mo ago

You said "does the mob still have a right to keep going" but I think you're mixing up two different things. The person who was wronged forgiving them doesn't always mean everyone else has to forget it happened, especially if the apology felt performative or wasn't about the real issue.

elizabethn561mo ago

The person who got hurt gets to decide if they forgive, but the rest of us still have to figure out what to do with what we saw. @bennett.patricia nailed it when she said an apology that feels like a performance doesn't earn a clean slate from anyone.