More than a year after Hollywood A-lister Will Smith infamously slapped comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, self-righteous social media mobs are once again on the attack. But this time cancel vultures are determined to make the actor pay for a politically charged comment he made months before the 2016 presidential election. A cancel culture strike is well underway.
Thanks to the media, a 7-year-old YouTube clip of the actor denouncing Trump supporters has gone viral on Twitter. The 2016 clip in which Smith says he wants to “cleanse” the U.S. of Trump supporters is blowing up all over social media, just days after the former president was charged with 34 felonies.
The timing of the controversy is no coincidence.
Smith’s use of the word “cleanse” was incredibly ill-conceived no matter when he said it. The word carries with it tremendous baggage, reminding many of the war in the former Yugoslavia where “ethnic cleansing” was a stand-in term for genocidal murder. But to vilify the actor for a passing comment he made seven years ago in a different political climate and set of circumstances strikes at the heart of why cancel culture is such a dangerous practice.
In Smith’s case, online detractors are resurrecting the past with a purpose. Their goal is to cancel the star and stoke political division during a time when the country is divided and fixated on the historic spectacle of a president being indicted and arrested.
Fueled by disinformation and deception, online mobs generally are rising up, erring on the side of outrage without first checking the facts. Cancel culture thrives when quick-to-anger social media users ignore intent and context and weaponize words with a mission-specific goal of destruction. In this instance, it is an old video clip that is being promoted as if were breaking news.
Smith’s egregious behavior at the 2022 Oscars put him squarely on the hotseat for a year. But since then, he has issued a number of apologies, and Rock mocked him ruthlessly one year later during a Netflix comedy special. Time for Smith move on with his life, it would seem.
But in a fiercely partisan world fueled by volatile culture wars, that is not happening — because cancel vultures live for click bait. It doesn’t matter whether the original offense caused harm or not. Missteps — no matter how inconsequential — are amplified by social media and then in the press, never to be forgotten.
Injecting outdated and politically tainted comments, even if they are offensive and ill-advised, into present-day conversations that are viciously partisan all but guarantees a volatile response.
The present-day Smith “cleansing” scandal bears the hallmarks of five of the six elements that comprise cancel culture:
1. Collective is considered victims of a crime. (In this case, it’s Trump supporters.)
2. Arising and accelerating quickly. (Will Smith has been trending on Twitter based on the video from years ago.)
3. Nature of the offense is trivial or fabricated. (This old video is being made to seem like a reaction to Trump’s indictment.)
4. Disproportionate response (Calls to cancel Will Smith and worse abound.)
5. Everyone is afraid to defend accused (Not necessarily the case here, since partisans on the right are stoking this and some are standing by Smith.)
6. Moral absolutism by those doing the canceling (Outraged Trump supporters are calling for Smith to be canceled, and worse.)
The timing is terrible for Smith, who has spent over a year trying to recover his reputation.
Smith will undoubtedly weather this new storm. but the saga exemplifies precisely why cancel culture is so dangerous: Anyone can be canceled for anything at any time. More than any time in history, past mistakes can impact the present, and create reputational risk well into the future.
Evan Nierman is CEO of crisis PR firm Red Banyan and author of the forthcoming book: “The Cancel Culture Curse: From Rage to Redemption in a World Gone Mad.”