In the age of social media, the Internet and so forth, there seems to be this thing where people dig up your past and say… “YOU SAID SOMETHING OR DID SOMETHING BAD YEARS AGO, you don’t deserve this job/position”.
*In no way, do I defend these thoughts or tweets, but i defend the right for someone to improve, change and to better themselves*. In recent times, many high profile people have been victims of their own mouths in the past.
Some example of this are:
Laura Lee-
Some racist tweet that isn’t allowed on AN…. – 2012
(Brand was not launched)
James Gunn-
‘Offensive’ Old Tweets Joking About Rape, Pedophilia”(Lost his job)
Sarah Jeong:-
#CancelWhitePeople-
No one cares about White people(she majorly got grilled and had to do a major apology)
Justin Trudeau-
“If I had known you were reporting for a national paper….”(Got called out on his hypocrisy, as he told parliament members to stand down if they had done an indecent act”
Other examplesOther examples
Josh Hader
- racist and homophobic tweets dating from 2011 and 2012.
(Lost opportunities)
Sean Newk
- Jeff, you’re still a *** - 2011
(Kept job, but majorly criticised)
… IN many of these cases, these tweets were 5 or 6 years ago!
Yes, these people are representatives of a sport or another major element of society, but representatives are not perfect. Also context matters. Years ago, times were a lot different, people did not take so many things into consideration or “politically correct”. The political climate was totally different (not saying that it’s a free pass).
Sure, if what they say now is like what they say in the past, then fine.. grill away!! But surely, people should not be grilled for what they did 10 or 6 years ago, if they don’t act in the same manner?Think about yourself? Are there possibly any tweets or things that you said 7 years ago that you could have regretted?
Q.Should statements from 6 or 7 years ago apply to that person today? Should we only dig up say, only the past 2 or 3 years of social media history as a judge of character?