Chris Brown, Mel Gibson, Classic Rock, and Cancel Culture: Who Gets A “Pass?”

Are you Team Blake or Team Justin? Have you seen Kanye’s most recent tirade? Can you believe what Chappell Roan said about…

That we, the American audience, both know and, seemingly, care deeply about the personal challenges celebrities are facing is indicative of the parasocial culture we’ve curated.

And while Lively/Baldoni might have some societal implications, and Kanye’s meltdowns could speak to the importance of destigmatizing mental health services, and Chappell Roan’s opinions might highlight some Gen Z struggles – let’s be real here: these individuals’ impact on our lives is outsized, and our inexcusable investment in their every move isn’t altruistic.

It can’t be.

What we know about these people is gleaned from what we see in the news, on social media, and on our TV screens…which is to say that what we actually know about them is limited, scripted, curated, manipulated, speculated upon, and sparse.

Yet, despite having never held a meaningful conversation with any of them, we deeply invest in celebs – often to the point that we idolize and/or despise them.

When asked, we have “reasons” for why this celeb should be celebrated and that one shunned, but our collective praise and/or outrage seem disturbingly arbitrary.

Even if the “sin” celebs commit is the same – even if it extends past mere faux pas into outright criminal behavior – who we skewer and who we salvage seems strikingly personal.

And hypocritical. Sometimes to the point of moral bankruptcy.

We’ll swear off a celebrity we despise for “dressing too old” for her age (Millie Bobby Brown anyone?) but make excuses for artists we idolize even if they do indefensible things.

Consider:

Per recent news reports, “Lethal Weapon” star Mel Gibson is, ironically, getting his guns back (He lost access to guns in the wake of his 2011 Domestic Violence conviction). That’s right – the man who has been convicted of domestic violence offenses and has been caught on tape being abhorrent about women and Jews, is being given access to deadly weapons again. He’s also apparently back in the public and Hollywood’s good graces, as his film and tv projects have taken off in recent years.

Yay?

Sure, he faced fallout initially (Good job us! Go Team Morality!). But in recent years, it seems, he has gotten a “pass” despite his history of bad behavior. Why?

Where’d all our righteous fury go? Off to buy tickets to “Sound of Fury” apparently…

One could say the same about others as well. Chris Brown – who just made an appearance at Coachella, where he was spotted speaking with one of the multiple women who has accused him of domestic violence – is still making hit records. He’s announced a world tour this year that’s pretty much guaranteed to be a success.

Another tour we, the public, can apparently catch: Bill Cosby. Now that he’s gotten his sentence for felony sexual assault reduced and is out of prison, “America’s [disgraced] Dad” has announced his plans for a standup comedy tour.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is still headlining performances despite being sued for sexual assault of minors multiple times – assaults he openly admits to in his autobiography “Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? A Rock “N” Roll Memoir.” (The cases against Tyler have been thrown out due to statutes of limitations on sexual offenses.)

Bowie. Page. Chuck Barry.

All continued their careers.

Because “it was a different time”? (A quick Google search reveals that Aerosmith performed publicly as recently as February 2025. “Different times” indeed.)

Is it because their artistic work still moves us, and we’d prefer to continue to enjoy it without the messiness of accountability?

Maybe.

“Can you continue to love the art of a ‘problematic’ artist” is an age-old question for a reason… but it’s a question made all the more perplexing by the fact that we do hold some accomplished artists accountable.

Harvey Weinstein, despite being responsible for movies many of us still love, will probably never see the outside of a prison again. The legal system is holding him to account… though, given that Project Runway – one of his many, many projects – is available on Peacock, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Tubi, his estate’s account is probably doing just fine.

R. Kelly seems to finally be getting his come-uppance. It only took us three decades to “cancel” him, despite the video evidence of his crimes against minors being widely viewed and comically parodied. We knew R. Kelly married Aaliyah in 1994. When she was only 15.

We knew.

And yet we kept buying his records.

To this day – despite Kelly’s incarceration for his crimes – his catalogue continues to receive millions of monthly listeners on platforms like Spotify.

Sure, there are some of us who’d spit on him if we saw him, but he still has his defenders and still makes money off the royalties to his songs.

It’d be easy to say the legal accountability Weinstein and Kelly (and P. Diddy, probably, and I wanna say Marilyn Manson, but a judge just dismissed the case regarding his alleged domestic abuse) are now facing shows progress: that the world is waking up to the harsh realities about violence and the sexual abuse of women and children… But such a statement fails to account for the Chris Browns and Steven Tylers of the world still performing to sold-out crowds, and the Mel Gibsons of the world regaining access to firearms and film sets.

It fails to account for why some celebs do heinous things and are tied to the whipping post, while others are given inexplicable grace.

While many of us sit around wondering “What’s wrong with them?” (‘Them’ being select celebs), I’m asking now: What’s wrong with us?

Where do we, as a society, draw the line? What are our hard stances about what is and is not a pardonable offence? Who do we allow to remain in our parasocial lives; who do we kick to the curb; and why?

Why can Gibson and Brown abuse women and still sell tickets, but abusers Weinstein and Kelly are persona non grata?

The answers, if they can be known, are worth exploring, if only for our own understanding of personal boundaries and values, assuming we have any at all.

It’s also worth exploring why we invest so heavily in these strangers in the first place.

Cult of personality?

Again, maybe.

But the behavior – cultivating deep emotional ties to strangers, to the degree that true devotion and/or revulsion develops – has grown cult-like in its fervor. And it’s time we ask ourselves why that is.

Note: This is an opinion article as designated by the the category placement on this website. It is not news coverage. If this disclaimer is funny to you, it isn’t aimed at you — but some of your friends and neighbors honestly have trouble telling the difference.