Is Concern Over “Cancel Culture” Elitist?

 

Among those on the Left, I’ve seen a great deal of dismissal over conservative concern over cancel culture, deeming the worry “elitist.” Only comedians and journalists are being canceled, so why is the average conservative so up-in-arms about the widening practice?

It’s an interesting argument, and one I’ve spent the day chewing over. I’m not personally concerned about “getting canceled,” because there’s no way to cancel a conservative writer and homeschooling mother. That doesn’t mean I won’t stop decrying cancel culture, because the mob’s bell could come for any of us. But for many other conservatives working out in the world, “cancellation” is a concern, though it looks far different.

One of my favorite Twitter follows, @PoliticalMath, recently locked his Twitter account. I can’t post his tweets here, because the account is locked, but I will copy and paste one of his last tweets explaining why he won’t be nearly as active on Twitter, and why the only Twitter users able to see his tweets are people who were already following:

Well… this is fun. A couple days after I wrote my piece about how conservatives don’t want to speak up due to severe repercussions in the workplace, my Meetup account got flagged for “abusive behavior”. And now I can’t register for professional events that I need for my job.

This could very well be a coincidence. An amazingly ironic coincidence that falls exactly in line with the actual malice I’ve experienced previously. And guess what: It’s going to work.

If I have to make a choice between talking about politics under a pseudonym and being able to do my job, I’m going to pick my job. Sure would be nice if there was some kind of legislation or regulation out there to protect me. Oh well! Sucks to be me!

Alright, looks like another one of my professional accounts is getting reported for abuse so I’m out. I’ll probably be back after we get our big product out, this is just too much distraction at this point. Have fun, y’all.

This is what “cancellation” looks like for the average Joe: intimidation. He linked to a piece he wrote recently about the topic, where he argues

Last week, David French issued a call to courage, urging conservatives to stand up for their beliefs even at the risk of falling victim to the PC mob. In response I noted that for “regular” folks — those with normal jobs and friends to lose — the risk of speaking out far exceeds the benefit…

Most of us, liberals and conservatives alike, just want to do good work. We don’t want to talk politics at work. We don’t want to alienate people. We don’t want to be the annoying in-law at Thanksgiving, ready with 15 hard-hitting talking points to take down the other side.

To give a more concrete example: What should we do about our companies’ increasingly annoying “diversity” initiatives? Just practically speaking, what would be the forum for that? The company Slack? Random emails to colleagues? Should we stand up at the company meeting to interrupt the HR manager in the middle of her presentation to voice our concerns? Should we object to the company’s Pride events, noting that our Muslim and Christian colleagues tend to get awfully quiet when these things roll around?

There is something about disrupting the workplace in this way that is deeply anti-conservative. We don’t want to pick battles that mark us as trouble employees. The time might come to fight those important battles, and we should make sure we’re fighting the ones we win or the ones we can’t avoid. Otherwise, we’ll be long gone before we get to fight them.

Conservatives aren’t just concerned about cancel culture because of the possibility that the bell may toll for us, but because we know that the bells toll in very different ways for conservatives and liberals. Take, for example,

Both of these Times writers have apologized for their past racist tweets and kept their jobs. So have others at the Times; there are no consequences for being racist, but only for liberals. Meanwhile, a $1,000 to a political cause that won (Mozilla’s CEO Brendan Eich, Prop 8 in California) can cost you everything. Which is precisely why conservatives won’t let “cancel culture” go unchecked.

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  1. KyleBauer Coolidge
    KyleBauer
    @KyleBauer

    TBA (View Comment):

    KyleBauer (View Comment):

    As much as I don’t hold with the “cancel culture”, I kind of hope this triggers a reset in how people use social media which I believe is the primary cause of the lack of respect and decency in our society.

    I am old enough to have lived during the period where there was no social media so if you wanted to communicate your opinions to someone you would actually have to talk to them; and if you did this in the way that many do on social media you would risk getting punched in the face. I’ve been punched in the face (it hurts) so I may be inclined to temper how I communicate to someone.

    But along came Twitter and under a pseudonym the @MrPotatoHeadsButtHole can spout any sort of indecent and offensive crap.

    You have a right to say what you want, but you don’t have a right to be free from the consequences of what you say.

    I mostly agree, but ‘deplatforming’ and losing your job seem to be among these consequences.

    I get what you are saying.  There are two types of problems…those that can be solved like 2+2=4 and those that cannot because they are like opposite ends of two poles.  In this case you have the “say whatever you want” pole and the “be reasonable and decent” pole.  So the challenge is to try and find a balance and if we start weighting one end too heavily we have to push down on the other end a little more forcefully.

    If someone says I believe in strong borders, there should be nothing wrong with that statement whether you agree with it or not and certainly no one should be punished for it.  

    However, if you say why are so many f***ing Asians in Chinatown like that SNL comedian and actually put it in print via Twitter than I have little sympathy for the justifiable consequences.

    Good discussion.  Cheers.

    • #31
  2. MACHO GRANDE' (aka - Chris Cam… Coolidge
    MACHO GRANDE' (aka - Chris Cam…
    @ChrisCampion

    DrewInWisconsin, Thought Leader (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Thought Leader (View Comment):

    Jeff Hawkins (View Comment):
    On the right, if a bunch of high school kids are shown smirking in front of a Native American, our punditry tends to have to deal with the facts as given by the narrative provided, disavow behavior that’s making us look bad, etc. all before we get an unedited tape and facts about the activist, for which our new narrative gets about 20 percent as much traction and not as much vocal criticism or cries for punishment to those who perpetrate the fraud.

    The fact that these pundits immediately adopted the left-wing narrative and tried to be the first to throw the kids under the bus is evidence of cowardice. They did not adopt a “wait and see” stance to allow the full story to come out. Under the bus these kids went. This is a cowardly act, an attempt to save one’s own skin, and it points to the complete absence of the virtue of loyalty which I’ve been banging on about lately.

    We don’t need any more pundits whose first impulse is to distance themselves from the people whose side they’re allegedly on. That speaks of someone who is motivated entirely by the promotion of the self.

    And I don’t want to hear anymore about courage from cowards.

    Courage is…..

    Oh, wait. Sorry, Drew.

     

    • #32
  3. Al Sparks Coolidge
    Al Sparks
    @AlSparks

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Reinforcing my opinion that David French is a pogue in the culture/politics war.

    And yes, I’ll say it, just like he was in Iraq.

    Well, the tooth to tail ratio of the modern military is getting smaller and smaller.  It’s getting to the point where the only military members going into battle are special forces units.

    Despite their rigorous training, how many Ranger units get deployed into actual combat (yes they deploy to combat zones; but how about actual combat)?  In the Army, a Ranger tab, along with an Airborne tab are just  stops to get into Special Forces.

    It’s getting to the point where even being a Ranger, but just a Ranger, makes you a pogue albeit a well trained one.

    David French entered the military in his late 30’s, and did make sacrifices to do it, including financial sacrifices.

    I disagree with him on a lot, including Trump.  But I respect what he’s done with his life, including his military service.

    • #33
  4. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Al Sparks (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Reinforcing my opinion that David French is a pogue in the culture/politics war.

    And yes, I’ll say it, just like he was in Iraq.

    Well, the tooth to tail ratio of the modern military is getting smaller and smaller. It’s getting to the point where the only military members going into battle are special forces units.

    Despite their rigorous training, how many Ranger units get deployed into actual combat (yes they deploy to combat zones; but how about actual combat)? In the Army, a Ranger tab, along with an Airborne tab are just stops to get into Special Forces.

    It’s getting to the point where even being a Ranger, but just a Ranger, makes you a pogue albeit a well trained one.

    David French entered the military in his late 30’s, and did make sacrifices to do it, including financial sacrifices.

    I disagree with him on a lot, including Trump. But I respect what he’s done with his life, including his military service.

    To me, French is a lot like George Will, in that they value decorum over everything when it comes to their politicians and societal trends. It’s a lot like long-time  New York Yankees fans or Dallas Cowboys fans who never could totally embrace their championship teams of the late 1970s/early 1990s, because those crude oafs George Steinbrenner and Jerry Jones were the ones running the teams.

    What successes Donald Trump’s had in doing conservative things they have championed for years still manage to upset them, because they’re being done by Donald Trump. French hasn’t gone full Bill Kristol or Max Boot, but you can tell he’s OK with suffering through four years of at the very least wacky-but-lovable Uncle Joe in the White House — if not someone like Bernie, Liz, Beto or Mayor Pete — if that meant removing Trump from the political stage. But he’d also be fine with a Pence-for-Trump swap due to constitutional violations by the president.

    • #34
  5. MACHO GRANDE' (aka - Chris Cam… Coolidge
    MACHO GRANDE' (aka - Chris Cam…
    @ChrisCampion

    Al Sparks (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Reinforcing my opinion that David French is a pogue in the culture/politics war.

    And yes, I’ll say it, just like he was in Iraq.

    Well, the tooth to tail ratio of the modern military is getting smaller and smaller. It’s getting to the point where the only military members going into battle are special forces units.

    Despite their rigorous training, how many Ranger units get deployed into actual combat (yes they deploy to combat zones; but how about actual combat)? In the Army, a Ranger tab, along with an Airborne tab are just stops to get into Special Forces.

    It’s getting to the point where even being a Ranger, but just a Ranger, makes you a pogue albeit a well trained one.

    David French entered the military in his late 30’s, and did make sacrifices to do it, including financial sacrifices.

    I disagree with him on a lot, including Trump. But I respect what he’s done with his life, including his military service.

    His service has zero to do with his opinions, unless the opinions are specific to his area of service.  What would your opinion of his opinions be, if he hadn’t served?

    Kevin Williamson never served (as far as I know), but I really like reading his pieces, and give his opinions weight, because of the quality of the writing, and the obvious research that’s gone into it.  I really don’t care if Kevin sits at home at night and eats pints of ice cream, or visits sick children in the hospital, in his spare time.  It’s the writing that I’m interested in, the product.

    Just read a few of his other pieces, especially the most recent ones on Kavanaugh.  Spot on.  But I don’t care if he carried a pen or a sword into combat, in terms of the writing.

    • #35
  6. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    MACHO GRANDE' (aka – Chri… (View Comment):

    Al Sparks (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Reinforcing my opinion that David French is a pogue in the culture/politics war.

    And yes, I’ll say it, just like he was in Iraq.

    Well, the tooth to tail ratio of the modern military is getting smaller and smaller. It’s getting to the point where the only military members going into battle are special forces units.

    Despite their rigorous training, how many Ranger units get deployed into actual combat (yes they deploy to combat zones; but how about actual combat)? In the Army, a Ranger tab, along with an Airborne tab are just stops to get into Special Forces.

    It’s getting to the point where even being a Ranger, but just a Ranger, makes you a pogue albeit a well trained one.

    David French entered the military in his late 30’s, and did make sacrifices to do it, including financial sacrifices.

    I disagree with him on a lot, including Trump. But I respect what he’s done with his life, including his military service.

    His service has zero to do with his opinions, unless the opinions are specific to his area of service. What would your opinion of his opinions be, if he hadn’t served?

    Kevin Williamson never served (as far as I know), but I really like reading his pieces, and give his opinions weight, because of the quality of the writing, and the obvious research that’s gone into it. I really don’t care if Kevin sits at home at night and eats pints of ice cream, or visits sick children in the hospital, in his spare time. It’s the writing that I’m interested in, the product.

    Just read a few of his other pieces, especially the most recent ones on Kavanaugh. Spot on. But I don’t care if he carried a pen or a sword into combat, in terms of the writing.

    I’m down with this. I think soldiers have experience-driven opinions regarding combat and the personal price thereof. And perhaps an understanding of non-American cultures, depending on deployment. 

    They also have an understanding of service – have served. 

    But they are still capable of being peace-at-any-price quasi-American leftists, and more than capable of being misinformed, misguided, and otherwise missing the mark. 

    • #36
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