We are now at 535,000 dead from the pandemic. We have a ways to go until we reach that “herd immunity” we need to become more normal in our lives again. Yet, the Republican party is not interested in doing anything to help us reach it. They all voted against the relief package and they are still interested in “cancel culture” which is a myth made up in people’s lame brains.
It is time to really look at this so-called “Cancel Culture War” that Republicans are howling about. And, it is time to look further back than last year or even the last four years. The idea of “cancel culture” was invented by Evangelicals and Conservatives. That is not hyperbole, it is a simple fact.
In the latest attempt to make their fake war a reality, Fox News and other so-called conservatives have now “reached out to Generation X” for help in stopping “cancel culture”. Now, I will begin with the fact that I was not a “perfect” father as my children were growing up. But, I did my best and I allowed them to be their own people while they were teenagers. It was the best way to prepare them for adulthood, I believed.
The concept of “cancel culture” really began long before the 1980s. I remember those days because my kids were teenagers during that period. I remember them listening to heavy metal music, rap, hip-hop and playing Dungeons and Dragons. All things Evangelicals and Conservatives were yelling about being “evil and sinful” and “filling our kids heads with Satan’s desires”.
This was really nothing new. I also grew up in the 50s and 60s. I remember these same people trying to make rock and roll an evil thing that needed to be stamped out. We were told that rock and roll was the devil’s tool. We didn’t have video games at the time or that would have also been attacked just as bad.
So, as you can see, “cancel culture” is not some “socialist evil thing” that needs to be stamped out. It is something that conservatives and Evangelicals have been doing for generations. The real problem is that these two main groups of mostly old white people don’t want the world to progress. They want things the way they were when they grew up. The major problem is that they always look back “fondly” and forget all of the problems that existed and that the newer generations were against.
In my youth we saw civil rights protests. We witnessed, and in many cases like myself, participated in antiwar protests. Some of these protests became violent but most were peaceful. I remember the Chicago Convention Riots in 1968 where the police attacked protesters whenever they felt the “urge”.
I saw on TV the attack on the Pettis Bridge when civil rights activists were marching for voting rights. I saw on TV the vicious attack by Bull Conner as he unleashed his attack dogs on children protesting for civil rights. I saw in the news the churches burned and people “lynched” because they were black and wanted the same rights as the rest of us.
I heard my children being “condemned” because they listened to rap, hip hop, heavy metal and other so-called “evil” music. I did not stop them from listening to it, but I allowed them to be their own person and make their own decisions. They all learned from those experiences and as far as I am concerned they grew up to be very fine adults and very fine parents in their own rights.
The real problem is that often, the right wing decides that stopping bad behavior in society is something that is called “cancel culture”. Let’s look at a few things they are worried about. The so-called “left” they say want to cancel and “censor” conservative voices. As everyone knows that is bullshit. What is trying to be “canceled” is racism, misogyny, homophobia, sexual harassment, sexual assault and xenophobia. If that is wrong, then I am wrong because I want all of that put in the trash bin of history so it won’t infect us anymore with unequal treatment of others just because they are “different”.
I will gladly continue my fight against these horrible behaviors. I will gladly continue fighting against anyone being discriminated against just because they are a different color, or sex, or sexual orientation, or national origin. That behavior is what is really wrong and it needs to be “canceled” and virtually stamped out.
On the other hand, the so-called conservatives and Evangelicals, led by the Republican party wants to “cancel” other things. They want to cancel voting rights for minorities, and are currently actively working on that right now. They want to cancel same-sex marriage because they don’t like it. They want to cancel the idea of economic equality. They want to cancel the right to abortion based on their personal religious beliefs, so everyone must live according to their beliefs and screw your religious beliefs.
They want to cancel vaccines. Fox News has led a propaganda campaign against the Covid vaccine. They declared that it “isn’t necessary and may be dangerous”. Republicans have picked up this battle cry. The latest survey found that 47 percent of white male Republicans say they won’t take the vaccine. About 30 percent of the entire population says they won’t take the vaccine. Why? Because the right has made the vaccine another political tool in their “fight against cancel culture”. Yet, they are actively trying to “cancel” their own followers by feeding them false information and allowing them to get sick and die.
These are the same things that have taken place in my entire lifetime. Conservatives are the first to try to cancel something simply because it is different. In my youth, it was Republicans who fought for civil rights and voting rights. The so-called Dixiecrats, Democrats from southern states, were the biggest threat against these rights. Once the Civil Rights and Voting Rights bills passed under Democrat President Lyndon Johnson, the Dixiecrats switched sides and were welcomed with open arms by the Republicans.
Today, the parties have totally switched sides in the civil rights and voting rights fight. Today, it is Republicans who want to disenfranchise minorities from their civic duty to vote. It is Republicans who are fighting against rights for anyone who looks, believes or acts differently than what they think they should.
We have seen this fight go off in all directions. Conservatives are howling that Tucker Carlson is “under attack” by the military. Well, he started the “war” against the military when he mocked the women who serve in our services. He has a right to his opinion, but don’t scream “poor me” when the other side fights back. That is exactly what is happening now. The right is crying about “poor Tucker” because the military and veterans are blasting him for his crude and personal attacks on our sister in arms.
As you can see, “cancel culture” is nothing new. Except, it is always the conservatives and Evangelicals who cry about being “canceled” when in fact it is they who are the main abusers of “canceling” thing they don’t like. Things like music, video games, or civil rights.
That is, in my opinion, the mortal sin of conservatives and evangelicals. They simply don’t want any progress nor do they want anything that disrupts their “comfort” zone. They are the ones trying to “cancel” everything not considered “conservative enough” in order to maintain the status quo. That includes the personal freedoms of everyone else. They really believe that they have the right to tell the rest of us how to live, what to believe and how to act.
In essence, they believe that they are “superior” to the rest of America and we don’t have any right unless they give them to us, which they won’t. When Fox News called on Gen X to “help fight the cancel culture war”, there were lots of retorts. The one I love best is “Hilarious notion that Gen X would assist the scolds that told us what to watch, read and listen to. Blow on the cartridge.
I couldn’t have said it any better.
Lean Left World 