One of the numerous catch phrases that has been circulating during the past few years is “cancel culture.” As you have probably heard, the long-running and much-loved comic Dilbert has been removed from hundreds of newspapers since Scott Adams made blatantly racist comments in a YouTube video. While many cheer the decision to make Dilbert clear out his desk and scram, others bemoan what is perceived as an assault on freedom of speech.
Freedom of expression is important and precious, but 1) it is not an absolute, and 2) free speech – or any other kind of freedom – does not mean freedom from consequences. You make racist comments, you’re going to be pilloried. And it serves you right.
Conservatives have been howling about “cancel culture” for years. Yet who are the ones biggest on practicing it? Conservatives! Look at Governor DeSantis’ decision to reject a supplementary high school course in African-American studies. He has also banned “woke” textbooks, as well as numerous volumes from Florida school libraries. Teachers and librarians face serious repercussions if they do not remove certain books from their shelves.
For decades, conservatives and right-wingers have been censoring information and culture. Why? They snarl that the books they ban – or try to – have “objectionable material” in them. What sort of objections material? Harsh language, sex, violence, drug use, depictions of non-binary characters. OK, I can understand making sure that kindergartners aren’t exposed to 50 Shades of Grey; but when the right lose their sh*t over And Tango Makes Three, they make themselves look foolish. Are they afraid that reading a book about two male penguins who raise a chick will turn all straight kids non-binary? Children who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc. read hundreds of books that feature straight characters, but they still don’t become cisgender.
Right-wingers have their own razor-narrow view on How The World Should Be, and the least deviation from this is unacceptable. They don’t want the minds of children to be stretched and broadened by certain ideas, or to think that anybody other than cisgender, white, fundamentalist Christian males can be heroic and/or large and in charge. They want women and people of color to be quiet and submissive, to remain in the background or serve as eye candy, while non-binary people stay closeted and non-Christians remain quiet. They want the Old Guard of white male Christian wealth to stay in power forever. They simply cannot stand social and moral progress, or stomach the idea of people who are different from them having the same rights and social status.
Not only that, the far right is anti-science. They are the ones who spread the rubbish that vaccines cause autism, COVID-19 is a hoax, Barack Obama is Kenyan, masks infringe on our rights, evolution is fiction, and Earth is no more than 12,000 years old. They refuse to accept scientific truths that contradict the Old Testament; many sincerely believe that the Second Coming and the end of the world are just around the corner – something nut jobs have been preaching for centuries.
In the old days, inquisitions cracked down on dissent, warning people to abandon heretical beliefs or face the rack and the stake. They were the OG cancel culture, squelching free thought in order to keep the sheep in line. Those in power needed to maintain control, and there was no better way than to threaten anybody who got out of line with eternal torment.
Today, people are free to believe as they will; the plethora of information available to the general public makes it easier for people to learn about science and garner overwhelming evidence, even proof, that the scientists are telling the truth. The Internet makes finding out about things a lot easier, though it also makes disseminating propaganda and misinformation easier as well.
To conserve means to keep things the same. A society cannot survive if it stays exactly the same year in and year out. A healthy society changes and progresses over time as people get new ideas and realize that some systems and ways of doing things don’t work. Social and moral progress are just as vital as scientific and technological progress – in fact, they are more vital because we need strong ethics and morals to handle the perils and promises of more knowledge and better technology. A stagnant civilization is a doomed civilization.
Yes, cancel culture on the Left may go overboard; but when those on the Right yowl about “cancelling,” the pot calls the kettle black.
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