“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free,” — Lee Greenwood, “God Bless the USA.”
by Robert M. Traxler
According to the urban dictionary, cancel culture “It is characterized by the response of an evil individual when they are shown to be wrong. They will call on their followers to report the social media accounts of the person or group that did the criticizing rather than discussing the criticism or showing by evidence where the criticism is incorrect.”
A backlash is forming to the current socialist “cancel culture” environment. A good example is that merely saying that all lives matter is a racist statement. Nothing wrong with saying all human life is important, but if you do the cancel culture folks will aggressively condemn you. The American left just may get the President re-elected with all the very strange thought and speech, over the top and just plain silly restrictions.
Americans will not vote to disband the police. It may happen in a few areas for a short time, but crime will increase, and the historical answer to no police and a good bit of crime is vigilance committees, always has, always will, and the current name for it is vigilante. Beware of what the left wishes for, as they may get it. If no police exist to protect your hearth and home, good folks will join together to protect each other. Does the left truly want that?
A recent editorial in this publication asserted that a person with a master’s degree in education should not stray from the liberal harem. We need to understand that the left feels that most of the folks reading this are the great unwashed masses, toothless hayseeds who are racist, sexist, and the standard issue of liberal insulting and degrading names, and also too stupid to think for ourselves.
Most on the left feel they are the anointed ones, the chosen elite, the crème de la crème; anyone with a master’s degree in education must be a progressive Democrat or excoriated in the public square as anti-intellectual. The term for it is the cancel culture; toe the party line or stand by for an attack. A classic example is a confirmed socialist with an undergraduate degree in history telling a person they know more about military science than a person with a masters in military studies and 20-plus years of experience; liberals are by their own definition smarter than conservatives in all things, just ask them.
The mantra is that we must “believe the science;” even when the science that told us wearing a mask was counterproductive, unpatriotic, even dangerous for over three months? The science that told us the COVID-19 virus could not be spread person to person or by community spread? The science that told us all we needed to do is wash our hands a lot to stop the pandemic?
The science that predicted global cooling was going to destroy humanity? The progressive left will tell us climate change is settled science; climatology can’t predict the weather a week in advance, but it can tell us with 100% certainty what will happen in 11 years. Cancel culture will attack anyone who asks a question, calling them science deniers and counter-intellectual, straight out of Mao’s little Red Book and the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, or what we referred to as the Cultural Revolution, by the way.
The progressive left will tell us that the United States is the environmental problem. China and India build a coal fired powered plant every week, every seven days, burning dirty soft coal. Not to worry, they do not pollute, just like Black Lives Matter demonstrations with people shoulder to shoulder cannot spread COVID-19, but folks in a church or at a Fourth of July parade in Dorr can.
Folks, you can’t make this stuff up. In the cancel culture, facts and truth are secondary to political correctness and what the mob, group, gaggle or whatever asserts is the truth.
Socialism always ends badly, in a dictatorship with suffering and violence. The problem is that people are not allowed to question authority; to question is counter revolutionary and punishable. We can understand how that works by giving the American cancel culture/anti-intellectual/
Think about the people who say that if you do not believe unquestionably in climate change, then perhaps you should not receive care for life ending diseases, as you deny science. That crassness bordering on stone cold heartedness is fine, even celebrated, in the socialist cancel culture.
Fascist propaganda, don’t believe science, then you ARE A DENIER and don’t get to use science.
Mr. Jones,
Fascist were/are socialists please read the father of Fascism, Benito Mussolini’s book, “My Autobiography” and you will find socialism that allows nationalism and some approved religion but socialism.
Anyone who is antifascist should be anti socialist. Mr. Jones science is never settled, by definition it must be questioned.
Thank you for the comment.
Reading and rereading your definition of cancel culture in your first paragraph above, I find nothing that attributes cancel culture to liberals exclusively. It is, therefore, a bit irresponsible to imply that cancel culture is practiced solely by those on the left. Conservatives have been equally responsible for using that tactic for just as long as it has been so identified.
To malign “follow the science” as you do is also an irresponsible tactic because it ignores the truth that scientific findings are always in a state of flux, especially where it involves something that has not appeared for study before now. SARS-CoV-2 reared its ugly head just six or seven months ago. It is under continuing scrutiny, thus new information is unearthed, new studies are completed, and new recommendations are made. As newer info and studies warrant, recommendations change. So actually, “follow the science” is a more responsible action, because to fail to do so means one is stuck in the old findings, failing to conform to new norms. Follow the science means we are being more congizant of the changes as they occur.
I am just plain tired of your “whatabout” approach to environmentalism and climate change. Yes, other countries (China and India) are far more the contributors to pollution and climate change than is the US. That still doesn’t excuse us from our own irresponsible behavior in those arenas.
Ms. Mandaville,
Thank you for the comment.
Please google the question “is climate change settled science?” you will find very limited room for “flux” allowed. I agree with you science is never settled, but please read the climate change “experts” who use the term, settled science, and do not allow questioning and call those who do question, science deniers.
Please note the definition in paragraph one is not mine it is the Urban Dictionary’s definition.
We can agree science must be questioned and challenged and is never settled.
Thanks again.
First Mr. Traxler, I am sorry to hear that the cancer you had previously been treated for has returned. It’s news neither you nor your family ever wanted to hear and I sincerely hope this next round of treatment is effective.
I have no clue why you are attacking education since you have taught classes at a publicly funded higher education institution. People who disagree with you and have master’s degrees are part of a “harem”? Really, “harem”?
If we don’t have people with expertise in multiple fields, we don’t have people to teach engineers, accountants, physicians, dentists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, among others. Its not “conservative vs “liberal.” It’s having people who have studied and acquired expertise they pass on to others through education.
No one I know supports the current dog whistle “defund the police” as cutting police. Those I know, including members of county sheriff departments, Michigan State Police and GR Police, think they have too much on their plate regarding the social work aspects that have been loaded onto their duties.
I don’t believe we need every city or county to equip their police departments like para-military organizations like acquiring surplus military vehicles and having SWAT teams. If it’s necessary, then make that the job of the state police. I am also opposed to the idea of county sheriffs and police chiefs having the ability to pick volunteer officers who get a badge or card to go along with their CCP or make getting a CCP easier. There was at least one case in MI where a small village had more than 100 “volunteer” officers, some living in different counties and over an hour’s drive away.
Lastly, I want to see our state legislature pass a law to license law enforcement officers. If you are a doctor, dentists, social worker, pharmacist, nurse, dental hygienist, certified nursing assistant, professional engineer, builder, real estate agent, barber or hair stylist, you need a license. It would require a basic list of minimum standards, including education. More importantly it gives the state and any other level of government that employs law enforcement a way to monitor police so they know and can track officers who jump from department to department.
Michigan has licensing for law enforcement officers.