We are living in a unique time in US history but unfortunately an all too familiar time in world history. Civil liberties have periodically been suspended, but never here on the massive scale experienced by other countries.
Our founding documents and their interpretation, guarantee basic rights. Every child learns that discrimination is wrong. We have courses in schools teaching us that. It is almost impossible to avoid a workplace where there are no seminars and sensitivity training sessions. We cannot discriminate in jobs, housing, loans, pay, opportunity, or anything else. But we are now carving out an exception, an exception that may encompass half the country. It comes under the heading cancel culture. It is not only allowed, but often demanded, that certain people be denied opportunities. It is frightening that discriminating against an individual or a defined group will bring the weight of the entire government down on the offender, but doing worse to perhaps half the country is not a problem. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Joseph Stalin: “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.”
If a company fires someone who has denied what is now deemed the truth, such as the integrity of the 2020 election, or that Black Lives Matter, or that we are a racist nation, the company is protected. The list of truths not to be questioned is not new but it is now the basis for a much more aggressive campaign against the deniers. This has been made possible by a drumbeat from the media, Hollywood and academia (Groupthink) when one speaks out against “truth” they can be canceled without even an explanation. Imagine a time when the Minority Leader of Congress meeting with a former president would be viewed as seditious by the media and the majority members of Congress, or when expulsion is demanded of a minority member of Congress. As easy as that, the President and his allies are “canceled”. The message is clear: These people are toxic and their support will not be tolerated. Many weak politicians and companies have already caved under the pressure. But the polls indicate that the people of this country, who have benefited during the last 4 years will not be intimidated. As the Biden administration continues to dismantle programs that have benefited those people, we will see those favorability polls for the former President continue their upward trend.
Perhaps the most unsettling observation from the “cancel culture” is the similarity to other periods of state-approved discrimination. Nations which have made discrimination a part of its national policy have usually generated great misery. Unless we fail to come to our senses quickly, future historians will view today’s cancel culture in much the same way as we think of the events which took place in the 1930s in Germany. The goal at that time was to marginalize and demonize a portion of the population that the new government opposed (Jews, gypsies, and other enemies of the state). Most importantly it legitimized mass discrimination of those people. It was achieved by a series of actions which included imposing travel restrictions, closing access to schools as well as to numerous professions and jobs and by limiting communications and thus controlling the influence of the target population. Asset control, including canceling of contracts, and gun control were important parts of the program. All these actions are now part of the cancel culture program. With impunity, we demand US Senators be added to a no-fly list, degrees from schools be rescinded, book contracts and municipal contracts be canceled and of course, access to various communication means be terminated.
In today’s world, it’s very easy to be labeled a subversive and be denied rights generally taken for granted. Simply question or disagree with the acceptable narrative of the “Establishment”. The authorized narrative, for example is that the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was instigated by President Trump and his allies, or that there was no fraud in the November 3rd election. The denial of that narrative is dangerous for the safety of the state and to allege otherwise is tantamount to a call for the toppling of the government. The absolute certainty of the justice of this by so many is frightening. How did we get here so definitively? The Left’s rationale for its vilification of Trump supporters is beyond question, at least by Democrat members of Congress, the media and the tech giants. Are the events of January 6th equivalent to the Reichstag Fires or the murder of Ernst vom Rath?
Others have also commented on the parallel of the January 6th attack on the Capitol to the Reichstag Fires of February 27, 1933, but it is worth repeating. Both occurred at the beginning of a new questionable administration; were used to consolidate support and both were used to connect the supporters of the past administration with the violence, and significantly, to give legitimacy to discrimination against those supporters and against anyone questioning the legitimacy of the new administration.
Some conservative writers see it as a way of pushing a Communist-style social credit system on Americans. Either way it never ends well.
On the Right Side 