Even if you don’t know Kim Sae Ron, her tragic death at 24 is a lens through which to have a closer look at cancel culture.
She was a South Korean actress whose career was destroyed after a 2022 drunk driving incident.

💔What happened:
Public outrage turned into severe backlash. She was dropped, shunned, and made unemployable. Her dignity was stripped away, and she was left isolated – until she ended her life.
She was reduced to a single mistake, turned into a symbol of shame, even though no one was hurt – only a transformer was damaged.

❌What the pillory is:
Judging, condemning, and publicly shaming – this is exactly how the pillory worked in the past.
People, wake up! The pillory was never about accountability or justice – it was about control.
If you were part of the ruling class and you knew that the lower classes outnumbered you, fear would be a logical response. The ruling class used public shaming to keep the lower classes afraid, distracted, and obedient. It turned individuals into scapegoats so people fought each other instead of questioning those (few) in power. Cancel culture does the same.

❌Who needs chains when shame keeps people in line:
The ruling class lets the people do the dirty work. They think they’re holding someone accountable, but they’re just reinforcing the system – keeping the masses divided, afraid, and under control.

❌We’ve been taught to keep ourselves in check and break each other through shame, punishment, and abandonment:
Kim Sae Ron was a human, not the mistake.
Her suicide should make us pause. Not to cast people out, but to ask – when did we become so quick to judge, condemn and bully? And let that grow into cruelty? How many more will it take before we finally see what we do to one another?

Even if people make mistakes, let’s not forget they are human. And more importantly, they weren’t born this way. They grew up in a harsh, dysfunctional system that shaped them, while everybody was watching.