Woman Compares Gen Z’s Obsession With Accountability To A Witch Hunt
Gen Z wants everyone to take "accountability" for their words and actions, but what exactly does that mean?
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock As Gen Z continues to come of age, some truths about the generation are becoming clear. For example, they have very different expectations for the workplace than what is customary.
Another thing that has become more and more obvious about Gen Z is their desire to hold everyone accountable for virtually everything. For example, when an influencer shares an opinion that they don’t agree with, they expect an apology. One woman thinks this behavior is no longer sustainable.
She called out Gen Z for demanding accountability in all situations.
A woman named Uzo, who goes by the username @nascar.uzo on TikTok, had some serious questions for Gen Z after they demanded accountability from completely random people a few too many times. “Genuinely, what is y'all's obsession with holding people accountable?” she inquired.
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Uzo went on to explain that this constant demand for accountability just isn’t realistic. “You cannot hold a stranger online accountable for anything,” she said. “You don’t know them.” Nevertheless, this has not stopped Gen Z from trying.
She had some sage wisdom to share that Gen Zers will hopefully listen to. “Someone with a lot of followers does something wrong, all you have to do is ignore them,” she shared. “Just block them and move on. Can’t hold them accountable for anything. You’re not their friend, family, boss, teacher. Like, what?”
That was when Uzo compared this behavior from Gen Z to a literal witch hunt. “Honestly, it’s kind of sad that we’re in 2025, ‘cause a lot of y’all would have loved the Salem witch trials,” she said.
Commenters had some interesting perspectives to offer on the subject.
People who commented on Uzo’s video seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. “‘Accountability’ is just bullying wrapped in therapy speech,” one person argued.
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Someone else added, “To them, accountability [equals] an excuse to harass people while pretending it’s activism.” A third person said, “Gen Z ‘accountability’ is just cancel culture rebranded to sound nicer.”
Another person elaborated on this idea of cancel culture and connected it to the general chaos we’re all seeing in the world today. “It’s part of a moral panic,” they said. “As people have increasingly lost a sense of control over institutions (like government, business) that can actually create change, they’ve replaced it with cancel culture of celebrities or strangers online. It fills the void and makes them feel like they’re doing something.”
Some of this accountability may actually be a good thing, but some of it goes too far.
Michele Parmelee wrote about Deloitte’s Global 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey for Forbes. She noted that young people were more likely to demand accountability.
“They’re the people most likely to call out racism and sexism, and to shun companies and employers whose actions conflict with their personal values,” she said. “Even though they want institutions to do more and aren’t hesitant to call for government intervention to fix what they can’t, they embrace personal responsibility.”
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This side of Gen Z’s calls for accountability that is more closely related to social justice can be a good thing. When something bad happens, they’re not going to take it lying down. As the world becomes more contentious and there’s more and more corruption, this is a welcome contribution from young people.
However, this isn’t really the kind of accountability Uzo was talking about. She was referring to Gen Zers who call people out for saying or doing the “wrong thing” on social media, and attempt to cancel them for it, whether they offer an apology or not (and whether one is really warranted). This is concerning behavior and has to change. Gen Z can’t continue to expect everyone to fall in line perfectly with their own opinions and never mess up. After all, they do their fair share of messing up themselves.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
