A-list actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck recently commented on the harsh realities of cancel culture, namely that the radical leftist mob inflicts punishment that never really goes away. The experience resembles a digital hell on earth, making redemption from whatever make-believe offense they declare you guilty of nearly impossible. They are both right on the money. Once the left marks you as anathema, you can never show enough remorse to find your way back into its good graces.
Damon and Affleck, longtime friends who have worked together creatively on numerous projects, shared their thoughts during an interview with Joe Rogan on his popular podcast while promoting their new Netflix movie, The Rip. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking it out. It’s an entertaining ride with a solid twist.
“I bet some of those people would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months or whatever and then come out and say, ‘No, but I paid my debt. Like, we’re done. Like, can we be done?’” Damon told Rogan. “Like, the thing about getting kind of excoriated publicly like that, it just never ends.”
Damon then noted that when the public refuses to let go of a person’s past mistakes, those mistakes ultimately “follow you to the grave.” The leftist worldview leaves no room for grace or mercy. Once they label you a “monster,” you will always remain one in their eyes, no matter how much you bow, kiss their stinky toes, and publicly flagellate yourself.
Affleck agreed with his friend, adding that people today “have dark, f****d up instincts to isolate people.” The Accountant actor also correctly pointed out that some individuals simply take joy in watching others fall from grace. We all witnessed an extreme version of this in 2025, when an assassin murdered conservative icon Charlie Kirk and leftists flooded social media with celebrations of his horrific death.
“Maybe because part of us is saying ‘it’s not me,’ so if you can point the finger, everyone’s looking over there. We feel safer, you know?” Affleck explained. “And to take any forgiveness out of it is a really f****d up thing, because then it makes it impossible to actually go, ‘All right, yeah, I did that… That was wrong. I get it.’ You know, because it doesn’t matter. Once you’ve said you’ve done it, you become like an outcast.”
Affleck also said that no one walking the earth truly wants to believe people are the “sum total” of who they are in their worst moments. Affleck and Damon are not the only figures in the entertainment industry calling for grace and forgiveness for the canceled. Legendary musician Nick Cave described the gracelessness of cancel culture as “mercy’s antithesis” in a blog post he published in 2020.
“Mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and in doing so allows us the oxygen to breathe — to feel protected within a society, through our mutual fallibility. Without mercy, a society loses its soul, and devours itself,” Cave wrote. “Mercy allows us the ability to engage openly in free-ranging conversation — an expansion of collective discovery toward a common good. If mercy is our guide we have a safety net of mutual consideration, and we can, to quote Oscar Wilde, ‘play gracefully with ideas.’”
Help us continue to expose the truth about liberal cancel culture and how it destroys lives. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member