Cancel Culture - Everybody's Doing It!

Let's talk about what's trending - At the moment, it's CANCEL CULTURE! Unless you've been living under a rock for the last five years, I'm sure you've heard the term used when anyone discusses our "culture war(s)" or the polarization of our society in more general terms. What is Cancel Culture? According to Dictionary.com, "Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming."

At first, this seemed to be associated with the #MeToo movement and was usually linked to folks on the left of the political spectrum. More recently, however, it seems that both sides (left and right) are engaging in the practice. Whether we're talking about removing Confederate statues and flags or censuring Republican congressmen and senators who voted to impeach and convict Trump, it seems that both sides want to get in on the action. It seems that folks are no longer merely interested in defeating their opponents or punishing wrongdoing - these days they want to permanently exclude or excommunicate each other from polite society.

And, perhaps most importantly of all, cancel culture doesn't solve anything. In fact, it's more like pouring gasoline onto an open flame! When some folks hear that six of Dr. Seuss' books have been discontinued, it drives them crazy! Moreover, instead of accomplishing the diminishment of racism, it only exacerbates it. In removing the books of an author whom they regard as a positive influence on children (someone whom they associate with reading bedtime stories to their own children), you've alienated them from ever entertaining your arguments about the racism expressed in those works. We need more engagement and discussion, NOT LESS! 

I'm thinking that some of these folks need to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, see Arthur Miller's The Crucible, or familiarize themselves with the history of Hollywood blacklisting and McCarthyism. It's too bad that the folks who engage in this behavior seem oblivious to the practice's impact on the exercise of our First Amendment rights under the Constitution (freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly) - not to mention what it does to someone's right to the pursuit of happiness! When we seek to make someone a pariah just because we disagree with them, we are actively engaged in the business of suppressing rights and character assassination.

I don't have any problem calling out behavior which I find objectionable, but I do get very uncomfortable when someone tells me that a person is unworthy of acceptance, love, kindness or common courtesy. We don't have to agree with each other, but we damn sure have to live on this planet together - whether we like it or not!