Cancel Culture on Both Sides

 

 

As we watch the GOP try to "cancel" anyone who isn't 100% on board with "Trump's Big Lie" it might be a good time to reflect on just how intolerant some on the Left have become. It’s quite tiresome to see the same script play out over and over again on social media over some real or imagined injustice that also attracts a lot of comment. There are always a few who feel the need to attack others.

Typically, it's not even what someone actually said that bothers the keyboard warriors so much. It's what  they think was meant, because they "interpret" what was actually said in order to shoehorn it into their agenda. 

They decide you are the enemy and they are quick to attack with wild accusations about your motives or moral failings. Their wrong perceptions are often motivated by irrational fear and distrust, which causes them to lash out in anger and resort to childish name-calling, often with exhortations to “sit down and shut up.”

Often one sees the hypocrisy of those who are quick to react to some real or imagined bigotry they've mined out of someone's innocent comment, by attacking them for their sex, age or the way they look. 

Making an ill-advised remark online can also result in real-life retribution, but if you have the misfortune to be video recorded doing or saying something stupid in the real world and it gets posted online, the woke mob can come after you with a vengeance.

The "Cancel Culture" actions of the woke mob have been a gold mine for Right-Wing propagandists. Many people are so fearful of the Left that they voted for a demagogue and con man and they still support him after he was impeached twice, once for inspiring a mob to attack Congress in an attempt to overturn an election.  There’s nothing scarier to a lot of average Americans than the thought that one moment of gross stupidity (aka speaking one's mind) can cost them everything, and it will live forever on the internet. 

I can imaging many people nodding their heads and saying, "That's what they deserve." Yeah well, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. No one is perfect, all the time. It's impossible. Those who are so quick to judge others may well find themselves in the same predicament some day.

Cancel culture has gone too far. It harms civil discourse and debate, and leads to a climate of fear and self-censorship in which people are afraid to speak or explore ideas at all. This sort of intolerance and vindictiveness will not make a better tomorrow for anyone.