How to Cancel Cancel Culture

Joaquin Phoenix Criticizes Cancel Culture in his Oscars Acceptance Speech while accepting the Oscar for best actor of his performance in “The Joker” Sunday night. Phoenix carefully articulated his thoughts on “cancel” culture and advocated for social justice, as well as commenting on the mistreatment of our earth.

Throughout the “Me Too” movement, and with recent political and social scandals, our society has been ‘canceling’ people based on an action or a comment. In other words we don’t forgive or forget, we instead banish those people, and decide to never associate with them again.

Here, Phoenix criticizes how society is so eager to banish people who make a mistake, he is advocating for second chances. To help the people in society that are cast out, and looked down upon.

“[We have to] continue to use our voice for the voiceless.” said Phoenix.

Phoenix then moved on to touch on the topic of inequality.

“We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, control and use and exploit another with impunity.” said Phoenix.

Phoenix is talking about the fight against injustice and human rights, he is really calling out people who are like him, wealthy white men, by saying that they aren’t superior, so why are they in control.

After his commentary on white privilege, he comments on how humans feel entitled to the world.

The line from his speech that got the most traction was, “We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable.”

When Phoenix addresses the dairy industry, and animal cruelty, by calling out the mistreatment of cows, as well as not taking care of our planet. He is going into the larger issue of our global health which is a big conversation right now.

Talking about animal exploitation got traction on social media. Sophia Esperanza, a self proclaimed Vegan with over 3 Million followers on instagram posted Phoenix’s speech, agreeing with his stance.

Phoenix ends his speech calling us to come together in peace.

“When he was 17, my brother wrote this lyric. It said, ‘Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.'” said Phoenix.

This surprising call to love and equality from Phoenix captivated the audience and the world. He truly used his time well; instead of listing names of people who helped him get to the top, he talked about the forgotten and mistreated in society.