Recently:
• YouTube censored a panel on health care. The tech giant didn’t like what panelists were saying about COVID-19 preventatives. The participants during the discussion – which was moderated by Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis – presented largely technical information to the audience.
• A track coach from a high school in New England was fired because he refused to make his players wear masks during practice. School officials had insisted that students wear the masks at all times to – against the prevailing science (which was later confirmed by the coach) – combat the Corona Virus.
• Major League Baseball (MLB) decided to move this year’s All-Star game from a city that is nearly half-Black (Atlanta) to a city that is almost all white (Denver) under the misapprehension that a recently passed Georgia law would make elections less accessible. Guess Black lives don’t matter after all.
• Longtime host of television’s “The Bachelor”, Chris Hanson, was accused of being a racist and forced to leave the show after defending contestant Rachael Kirkconnell’s attendance years ago at an Old South “antebellum” party.
• Adam Rubenstein, the former opinion editor and writer for the New York Times, was forced to resign from the newspaper following a staff uproar over a Times piece authored by Senator Tom Cotton. The column by the Arkansas Republican called for federal troops in riot-torn American cities last summer.
• Missouri Senator Josh Hawley had his soon-to-be-released book cancelled by his publisher after he – backed by President Trump – publicly challenged the 2020 election results. The Republican’s book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech” – scheduled to be published in June – also managed to upset Silicon Valley, which is suspected of pressuring Simon & Schuster to terminate publication.
• As San Francisco School Board members tangled with the teachers’ union over when to re-open schools they took the time to consider removing the names of former presidents – like Washington and Lincoln – from district schools. The school board asserted that these and other forefathers were “racist”.
• Twitter just cancelled the New York Post newspaper for publishing a story that exposes Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter (BLM), for owning several multi-million-dollar homes. The newspaper also reported that Kahn-Cullors, a self-described, unapologetic Marxist, was surveying homes to buy in a Bahamian neighborhood where prices start at $5 million.
Just a few examples of the wild-world of the cancel culture. And, regrettably, in a growing number of jurisdictions its standard fare, not the exceptions.
The Left believes the history of America should be re-written and the above are simply illustrations of the outcomes they believe need to occur. In other words, according to this new leftist movement just about all of American life has a racist element in it and must be changed.
And, there you have it – these are foundational principles of today’s cancel culture. Whereas, in our democracy it used to be that both sides of an issue were debated and the winner of the argument – backed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – usually prevailed.
But, in today’s toxic environment, the First Amendment’s guarantee of “free speech” is out the window – replaced by more partisan, muscular politics. Skinny on the facts but strong on emotion the stories are taken as gospel. Indeed, the entry among partisans into these debates – typically Members of the U.S. House and Senate – is an anecdote, true or untrue, shared with a “woke” media.
What to do? Forget trying to reach out to mainstream Americans – the arguments will always sound frightfully hollow. Plus, most Americans are anti-racist and won’t sympathize with anything – however unintentional – that diminishes the closely held posture.
Victims of the cancel culture smears need to respond to their oppressors, forthwith, following the charge made or action taken – particularly if it counteracts the claim. For example, Senator Hawley not only responded with the truth right after Simon & Schuster made its announcement, he promptly acquired a new publisher.
When the MLB switched cities to hold the Mid-Year Classic in Denver, CO instead of Atlanta, GA – denying several Black-owned businesses tens of millions of dollars in income – pundits instantly smothered the MLB with criticism. Among other things, details of Colorado election law were provided and compared (unfavorably) to the newly passed Georgia law.
After Bradley Keyes, the high-school track coach was let go for breaking campus mask rules, he put them to the test: he exercised while wearing a mask. Not surprisingly, he found the mask to be an irritant, hard to breathe through. Unfortunately, that’s only an adjunct to the story – the coach is still out of a job – but his findings survive and now are part of the debate.
And, that says when we see something, we all should say something . . . quickly.
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