XAVIER BOATNER
campus editor
xavier.boatner@my.tccd.edu

In a world full of aggressors and abusers, one must wonder at what point is forgiveness no longer a viable option.

It seems like nearly every day now, news breaks of some random person or celebrity getting “canceled” for their unjust actions or behavior. While not everything the internet cancels people over is bad, there’s certainly a fair amount of canceling that’s justified. Don’t think of it like getting canceled, think of it like having consequences for your actions or something.

Jokes aside, when do people get those elusive second chances? The answer may shock many and numerous people will never see it coming – it depends. There’s a wide range of mistakes and bad things a person can do that would result in society putting them under the judgmental microscope of emotional exemption.

For those lucky enough to have only forgotten their best friend’s cousin’s twice-removed girlfriend’s sister-in-law’s brother’s boyfriend’s fiance’s birthday a few times, asking for that deliciously sweet second chance shouldn’t be too big of a request. 

For those not so lucky, crashing a car into the driveway of the neighbor one too many times may likely significantly reduce the possibility of getting a second chance, or so they say.

However, these likely aren’t the most topical examples. Many recent examples of – let’s say it how it is – pretty bad people include far more extreme scenarios such as abuse, assault, and manipulation, among other nasty things.

Let’s take Justin Roiland for example. Justin, the co-creator of the popular adult animated comedy “Rick and Morty,” has recently been outed as a domestic abuser and has been accused of false imprisonment. In times like this, it should go without saying that Justin is in the wrong here.

There’s not much leeway for forgiveness and “I’m sorry” when the victim of your violent actions is damaged either physically or psychologically. There’s not and should never be any consolation for this kind of dehumanizing behavior. There’s nothing “schwifty” about this, Justin.

Another topical example of a filthy cad losing their second chance privileges is Twitch content creator Brandon Ewing, known online as Atrioc, who has been exposed for something that’s, to be blunt, absolutely disgusting.

Recently, the collective internet caught him with one hand on the keyboard and another – wiping the sweat from his forehead after people found he had NSFW deep fakes of female content creators. Not only is this damaging to the women’s reputations, but it’ll likely have devastating effects on their mental health as well. 

It’s times like this when forgiveness was never an option. 

Many people do deserve second chances. We aren’t perfect and we’ll never, not in a million years, be perfect. But it’s important to realize that there are some things we shouldn’t forgive. Not everyone deserves a second chance.