Editor’s note: All opinions expressed in this article belong to their respective author(s). Check our section “Voices” dedicated to opinion pieces on AUI Chronicle. This piece has been co-authored with Karim Bahoum.
“Cancel culture” has been present for quite some time in our community. Moreover, it is more prominent now that students are under lockdown and in the mid of a global pandemic. But first, what do we mean by cancel culture? Cancel culture is about shutting somebody down and silencing unpopular views. The right to challenge and be challenged is no longer there. Instead, prejudice and intolerance become more prominent in our discussions’ platforms. Losing faith in representative institutions and endorsing the conspiracies becomes a more appealing path than the choice of reason and logic.
Last week’s incident published in the student community group came as a shock to all the AUI community. An incident that presumably occurred in front of the AUI maingate is not what you expect on a Monday night. “Two girls left to sleep on the streets” is how the series of complaints starts. The girls went on by describing their inability to access campus because of an empty maingate and no presence of security guards. They took the decision to not stay in front of university doors but rather in one of a restaurant’s chairs in downtown in the middle of the night. The claim is the unavailability of any AUI responsible or administrative member to provide help to these students. Physical assault and sexual harassment were part of the complaints mentioned in the story. Once the story got shared on AUI student community group a turmoil of angry reacts and statements of shock started being displayed on the social media platform.
Students were divided between those who believed the events and those who were skeptical about it. The deletion of the post by its owner, while the fingers were directed towards the entity responsible of the Facebook page, did not help much. In fact, this is not the first time that one entity gets cancelled with no proof nor justification of such assumptions. The latter leads to tension and a climate of incredibility between students and their representatives. Later in the night the two girls went live to relate the events and to answer some of the questions directed towards them. With vague responses and a nervous voice, the two girls went on with the interview.
Fake news: A read beyond the title
The story related above turns out to be a series of misleading events that created a high level of mistrust and suspicion. Few days after the first posting, the girls released a statement apologizing to the whole community and admitting the fakeness of what was related in the first post admitting that they had no encounter with any of the AUI’s officials nor with the security guards. Fake news not only tarnish the reputation of a university, but it created a huge gap between students and the administration. Fake news destroy credibility and harm other people who are actually suffering within the community. Using a sensitive topic for clickbait will only be damaging and an act of irresponsibility and lack of critical thinking. It is well known that fake news stories resonate with people and create velocity on social media, but one must be able to understand and absorb the flow of information they are exposed to on a daily basis. Propaganda, misinformation and fake news have the potential to polarise public opinion and reshape the different sides of a story.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it
Aristotle
Finally, while many of us complain about FAS classes and the necessity to go through its content for two consecutive semesters, it is important to stress on the importance of such material in the building of a critical sense among university students. The ability to analyze and critically think knowledge is an important asset to respond critically to propaganda and misinformation not only between the walls of a classroom but in our everyday life. In fact, a survey conducted by the Association of American colleges and Universities showed that 95% of the employers agree that a candidate’s demonstrating ability to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major. Therefore, having such asset will prevent the recurrence of these incidents and the crisis that such events generate.
