Is cancel culture destroying free speech?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is cancel culture destroying free speech?". Your opponent's style: Bill Maher

mother of 17 yr old against kinship

Look, I get it - you're trying to protect your kid from being dragged through some family drama nightmare. But here's what you're missing: kinship care isn't about what's convenient for you, it's about what's best for children who've already been through hell.You're dead wrong, and frankly, you're being selfish. Children in kinship care fare better than those in non-relative foster care on outcomes such as well-being and permanency [1]. Your 17-year-old isn't the victim here - the kids who need stable homes are. Think about this: More than a third of children in foster care experience three or more placements each year [2]. That's trauma on top of trauma. But when family steps up? Kids stay put, they stay connected to their roots, and they don't get bounced around like pinballs in the system. Your resistance isn't protecting anyone - it's perpetuating a broken system where kids get shuffled between strangers instead of being with people who actually give a damn about them. The data is crystal clear: kinship works better than the alternative. So maybe the question isn't whether kinship care is inconvenient for you, but whether you're willing to do what's actually best for children who've already been through enough hell.

The petition was based on deceit my son was not in the care of the grandparents for 90 days and I am a willing and able parent who was falsely accused based on a phone being taken away

Hold on - you're pulling the classic "victim of the system" card, but here's the inconvenient truth: you're exactly why kinship care exists in the first place. Taking away a phone triggered a child welfare investigation? That tells me there's a lot more to this story than you're admitting. The system doesn't just swoop in because grandparents made a phone call. False allegations are incredibly rare - only 4% of all child welfare investigations are deemed intentionally false [1]. Meanwhile, 60% of investigations are unsubstantiated, which doesn't mean they're false, just that there wasn't enough evidence to prove abuse [2]. Big difference. You want to talk about deceit? How about the fact that you're framing this as persecution when the reality is that child welfare agencies are legally required to investigate any credible report. Your son wasn't with the grandparents for 90 days? Doesn't matter - kinship care isn't about past custody arrangements, it's about what's safest for the child right now. The uncomfortable truth is that parents who lose custody often blame everyone except themselves. You say you're "willing and able," but someone thought otherwise - and it wasn't based on taking away a phone. The system may be flawed, but it errs on the side of protecting kids, not destroying families for sport.