Cancel Culture is growing because Consequence Culture has been fading. One of the goals of the American Dream is to become rich, famous, or on-the-right-team enough so that consequences don’t apply to you. When society sees that normal consequences don’t apply, they react.

People who are willing to say “I’m sorry. I was wrong,” and face the consequences of their action don’t generally get “cancelled.” Especially if it seems, from their behavior, that they have learned and grown.

But our current society is built around avoiding responsibility. Whether it’s the police, or corporations, or politicians, they are allowed to say “Lessons were learned,” without saying what those are and w/o repairing the breach.

More often than not, the people who did the injury go on the offense, blaming the victim. And so, we’ve learned over time that certain people are above consequences. And we’ve lost faith. Cancel Culture is the result.