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Remember when getting canceled used to mean losing your job?

Back in 2018 I watched a friend get dragged online for a bad joke she made at a bar in Portland, and within 48 hours her boss had fired her over the phone. Now it feels like most people just lay low for a week and come back with an apology video. Is the permanent career destruction actually gone for good?
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oscarmurphy
People act like getting canceled is some life ruining tragedy now but half the time it's just a few angry tweets and then everyone moves on. I know a guy who got called out for some old racist posts back in 2020 and he just deleted Twitter for a month and got his job back like nothing happened. Permanent career destruction only ever really hit people who didn't have connections or money to ride it out. It was always more about who you know than what you did.
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betty_barnes
Right, and the same people who scream about "cancel culture" being out of control are usually the ones with a safety net made of pure nepotism. In my experience, getting "canceled" for someone without a rich dad or a famous last name is way more like getting fired from a small town diner for stealing tips than it is some dramatic public shaming. Hard to ride out a hashtag when you're also trying to figure out how to pay rent that month. Guess it's just another case of the rules being different for folks at the top and the bottom of the ladder.
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