Here is where the discord is laid bare. People are entitled to their opinions - but there must also be a limit on actions that can be taken on what can be deemed 'offensive'.
The removing of something from it's context, repeating it out of context and then generating outrage based on 'offence' divorced from the context in which it was said is problematic - it becomes applying an unfair consequence to an action.
If, for example, you say to me. 'Penguin, much as I love our frennemy banter I find your incessant comments on my work to be annoying and sometimes I wish you'd just go off and die' And then you add a winky emoji. I would interpret that as a joke, shared between the two of us. If, the following day, the headlines read 'Elle Beau (not 21) tells cute Penguin to 'go off and die' - you'd have been taken out of context.
If this was placed on Twitter as an example of how you're guilty of animal abuse and how you hate all animals - and the only quoted thing was 'go off and die' as uttered to a Penguin - hundreds and thousands of people might call for you to resign. They'd be as offended as they ill-informed. They haven't read the words in the original context. They are acting on limited information. Your apology would indicate guilt, your lack of apology would also indicate guilt.
You'd still have your Medium channel - but you'd likely have an unpleasant time.
For that reason I disagree with Swcman (currently below me). Cancel culture is not the same as boycotting. Boycotting is a slow moving process based on a collective and informed decision making. Like the boycotting of public transport within the civil rights movement. Cancel culture is a distant cousin, often based on omitted information and the psychological desire to virtue signal, and the relative ease with which you can add your voice to mob justice.
Like you've said, you must always be aware of the consequences of giving your opinion - free speech is balance of rights and responsibilities. You must be responsible for what you say - but sometimes society must also grow up and balance these things. If you haven't read it, I recommend 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed' by Jon Ronson. It's an excellent book and explores what happens when the response to what has been said is taken out of context and reactionary. Lives have been destroyed by single moments and ill-thought through jokes.
