💡Thought Shares

c/canceled-culture-check

14

hall.joel•16h ago

Remember when nobody cared what brand your boots were?

I was thinking back to when I started out in this line of work maybe 15 years ago. Back then you just wore whatever boots fit your feet and got the job done. Nobody was taking pictures of your gear or posting reviews about how a certain brand was "problematic" because of some political donation or whatever. Now I see guys getting sideways looks for wearing stuff from companies that got cancelled over something the CEO said 10 years ago. It's wild how fast things flip. I'm not saying people shouldn't have standards but it feels like we lost something when every piece of equipment comes with a backstory you gotta check first. Anyone else tired of having to vet your own work gear like it's a political candidate? Has anyone actually stopped using a tool or boot brand because of this stuff?

20

avery219•3d ago

My $5 yard sale book helped me pass the plumbing code test on the first try

I was studying for my plumbing license exam and kept failing the mock tests on code questions. My neighbor's dad gave me a beat-up code handbook from 1998 he found at a yard sale for $5. The old examples were way simpler and somehow explained the rules better than my $200 study guide. Has anyone else gotten lucky with an old edition of something like that?

16

spencer_coleman•5d ago

Tried to support a local candle brand after their 'woke' controversy and the scent gave me a migraine for 3 days

I lit the $28 soy blend in my Denver apartment thinking I was making a statement about second chances, but after 20 minutes my head was pounding so bad I had to toss it outside on the balcony and now I'm wondering if the cancellation was about the politics or just the terrible fragrance all along, anyone else ever regret jumping into the defense of a canceled brand based on principle alone?

24

stone.lisa•6d ago

Watched a barista get yelled at for a typo on a cup last week

I was at a coffee shop in Portland called Heart Roasters and this woman went off because they wrote her name as "Sara" instead of "Sarah." The barista apologized and offered to remake it but the lady kept saying it was "erasing her identity" or something. Honestly, do you think getting a name wrong on a cup is really cancel-worthy behavior?

21

mark_carr7•6d ago

The rooftop bar in Denver that turned me off tipping pre-tax totals forever

Last Saturday I grabbed a $12 beer at a spot in LoDo and the suggested tip on the screen was calculated on the total after tax so they wanted $3 on a $13.20 bill, has anyone else noticed bars sneaking that in on the tablet?

8

the_taylor•22d ago

Vent: Served a guy who said he "canceled" his own daughter over a TikTok dance

Had this dude at the bar last night, mid 50s, bragging about how he stopped talking to his 19 year old for 3 months because she posted a dance video he thought was "too adult." He called it canceling her. I deadpan stared at him and asked if he thought cancel culture was for personal family discipline now. He got all defensive. I just walked off to pour another beer. Am I wrong for thinking this is a wild misuse of the term? Or is this actually a thing people do now?

34

the_diana•22d ago

Got chewed out by a client for not telling them the sod would die in 2 weeks

Put down a nice St. Augustine lawn for a lady in Oak Park last spring. Didn't mention you gotta water it heavy for the first 10 days or so. She went on vacation right after, came back to brown crispy grass. Told me I should have warned her upfront. Now I give everyone a printed sheet with watering times and a schedule. Has anyone else had a customer get mad over something you thought was common sense?

11

mark_carr7•22d ago

The whole "they deserved it" argument on this sub is way too simple

I keep seeing people post about a celebrity or brand and just say "well they did X so they deserved to get canceled." But I think most of you are skipping the REAL question. Last month a pretty big YouTuber got dropped by all their sponsors after someone dug up a tweet from 2015. Yeah the tweet was bad, no argument there. But here's what gets me: the same people cheering that cancellation are still watching other creators who said WORSE stuff last week. My buddy screenshotted one guy commenting "canceled forever" on that YouTuber's video then saw him liking a streamer who literally got caught cheating on his wife. It's like people pick and choose based on who they already hate instead of having any consistent rule. So my question is: should cancellation be based on the act itself or on the person's current behavior and growth? Has anyone else noticed this double standard?

6

morgan.rose•22d ago

I finally wasted $80 on a meal kit subscription and now I get why people swore them off

The produce was already turning brown by day two, the recipes took twice as long as advertised, and three of the bags leaked all over my counter, so has anyone else felt ripped off by these box services?

4

max_torres44•23d ago

Went to a small bookstore in Austin and found they canceled a local author's book signing

I was at BookPeople in Austin last Saturday and overheard the staff talking about how they pulled a signing for a local poet named Sarah something. Apparently she posted something on Twitter about a political issue like 5 years ago and someone dug it up. The manager told a customer that they "don't want to platform hate speech" but it was just her saying she didn't like a certain policy. I think this is getting out of hand when you lose a book signing over a 5 year old opinion. Has anyone else seen their local shops cancel events over tweets people forgot about?

1

rowan969•25d ago

Why does nobody talk about how Neil Gaiman was quietly dropped after those 2022 stories?

I remember reading his books back in the early 2000s and he was this untouchable figure in fantasy. Then around summer 2022, the Tortoise Media podcast ran a series with some pretty serious accusations from multiple women. Nothing really went to court, no big public apology, no major legal finding. But I noticed over the next year or so, the convention invitations dried up, his Netflix deals got real quiet, and bookstores stopped putting his new releases on display. The strange part is nobody really debated whether it was deserved or not - it just sort of happened. I still see people recommend American Gods online, but nobody talks about the man himself anymore. Has anyone else noticed that shift, or am I just in different circles now?

29

grantp14•27d ago

Bought into the hype about those fancy sous vide machines and thought it was just another kitchen gadget waste.

After cooking a steak that came out perfectly medium rare edge to edge with zero guesswork on my first try, I finally admitted the thing actually works and now it sits on my counter full time, anyone else have a gadget they rolled their eyes at that turned out legit?

25

knight.dylan•28d ago

Serious question, is the 'canceled' label permanent for some people?

I was thinking about that chef who got canceled 2 years ago for faking his farm-to-table sourcing. He posted a comeback video last month and it got 50k views but mostly people calling him out. I get that he lied, but he also lost his restaurant and did a full apology tour. How long do we figure someone stays in the penalty box before they get a second shot? Has anyone seen a brand or person actually come back from being canceled for real?

11

jennifer833•28d ago

The influencer who got canceled for faking a charity walk still bothers me

I just read about that influencer who claimed to walk 500 miles for cancer research but was caught editing GPS data. She raised like $30,000 before someone noticed her path went through a lake. Did she deserve the cancelation or do we pile on too quick these days?

24

miles_hall•1mo ago

That vegan bakery in Portland that got canceled over a tip dispute still has amazing cookies

I stopped into Sweetpea Baking on Hawthorne last Saturday and honestly their raspberry danish is still top notch. The owner got dragged online in 2022 for allegedly skimming from the tip pool but I asked three current employees if it was true and two said it was a misunderstanding blown way out of proportion by an ex-staffer. Do you guys think a bakery can be separated from its drama or should I just find a new spot and move on from this?

15

kimr74•1mo ago

Still salty about that author who got canceled and then uncanceled

I mean, I followed this writer on social media for like 3 years, and then last June she posted something pretty bad about mental health resources. People called her out, she lost a book deal worth maybe $50k, and I felt kind of justified about it. But then six months later she apologized and got her deal back, and now everyone is acting like it never happened. Has anyone else just felt weird when a cancellation gets walked back like that?

3

the_linda•1mo ago

PSA: My "waterproof" jacket failed me in a 10 minute downpour last Tuesday

I was walking home from the bus stop in Portland when the sky just opened up. Paid $85 for this jacket at REI because the tag said it could handle heavy rain. I got absolutely soaked through the shoulders before I even made it three blocks. Has anyone else had luck with a specific spray-on waterproofing treatment that actually works?