Meghan McCain Tears Into Internet Cancel Culture on ‘The View’: “I’ve Gotten In A Lot of Trouble on Social Media”

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On today’s pre-recorded episode of The View, co-host Meghan McCain voiced her opinions on a recent Supreme Court ruling on one student’s First Amendment rights. After a vulgar Snapchat video leaked online, Pennsylvania high school student Brandi Levy was suspended from her public school. The Supreme Court, however, backed the student, ruling that the school district had violated the First Amendment by punishing her.

The ladies of The View were torn on the matter. While co-host Ana Navarro argued that the student probably violated the school’s code of conduct and was thus subject to punishment, McCain tore into the idea that online culture forces everyone to act perfectly. Joy Behar, who was subbing in for Whoopi Goldberg as anchor today, began by saying that she would’ve done the same thing as the suspended teen.

“Meghan, what do you think?” Behar asked. “I mean, I would’ve been kicked out of every school if there was social media at that time because I’m such a venter. I would be venting all over the place. How about you?”

McCain agreed, recalling when social media entered her life and how it affected her public image.

“Me too. Social media started — Facebook came out when I was in college,” McCain said. “I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble on social media throughout my 20s, up until yesterday, basically. It can be very dangerous.”

McCain agreed with fellow co-host Sara Haines, who had argued that teens need to host a respectable social media presence in order to get jobs and prepare for adulthood later down the road. But she also argued that everyone on the internet is prone to voicing their anger — especially users of Yelp, a website that features crowd-sourced reviews about restaurants, bars, and other businesses.

“I agree with what Sara said, we can’t coddle kids and make it seem like there won’t be ramifications for what they do and say publicly,” McCain continued. “That being said, have you guys ever read Yelp? Yelp is just a vessel for people to rage about every company and every industry.”

The co-host went on to explain that if the entire internet (including adults) is ranting and raving, there’s no point in picking on young folks. She suggested that it was pointless to hold teens to the same standard as public figures — like herself.

“All of the internet is just people raging at each other,” McCain said. “To pick out this one dumb teenager — who I’m sure is very embarrassed at this point and won’t do it again — I’m just sick of holding teenagers at the standard that we hold commentators and people who have public lives.”

And, of course, the conversation looped into cancel culture, with McCain tearing into the internet’s tendency to pick apart every mistake made online.

“My fear with the culture going forward is that people aren’t allowed to make mistakes. There’s this idea that we have to have perfection, and I think that stifles free speech,” McCain said, continuing, “I really worry about people’s digital footprint and what can happen going forward. Because people mess up, it’s okay. We’re fallible. If it’s hate speech or something like that, it’s a different story. But this is just a dumb kid being dumb.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Watch the full discussion from morning’s show in the video above.

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