Cancel Culture
From Karens to Qarens. With death threats, it's gone too far.
I have to put forth some effort at not drinking myself under the table each and every evening. I have discovered a shot of tequila is the quickest route to feeling copacetic. I take mine with one shot of limeade and one shot of Spicy V8 vegetable juice. Some folks like to go from savory to sweet. I like sweet to savory.
Not that it matters. Both are just a means to an end.
I don’t do this every evening. I mix it up. But a tequila shot does the trick with a lot less imbibing. Thereafter I can watch any kind of drivel and be entertained. It is not, however, conducive to reading. Not anything with multi-syllabic words.
There’s a lot of talk about cancel culture in the news. Strangely, it does not seem to exist in my immediate universe. At least, it is not brought up in day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month or year-to-year conversation. But I know it is a topic that bears mentioning because I know it is a growing part of grievance politics.
The use of the phrase ‘cancel culture’ is relatively new. I’ve heard it used for a wide range of popular figures from Kanye West to Al Franken to lesser public figures who raised their public profiles just high enough to have the public take notice and try and chop it off. I’d be curious to know if there are any public figures who haven’t had some coalition or group of people try and ‘cancel’ them at one stage or another.
Other uses of the phrase include outing people online for behaviors “not suitable for decent society”. It’s kind of like it’s the modern-day version of the town square stocks. Or the Scarlet Letter.
The scrawny, Scarecrow-looking senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, squealed about the ‘cancel culture’ mob after he wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times decrying the 1619 Project. The seditious senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, along with the other members of Congress who are all guilty or guilt-ridden over their roles in the storming of the Capitol Building all squealed about how ‘cancel culture’ was booting them off social media platforms and denying their free speech.
We know this because they all went on various national news programs to sob about it. Over and over and over again. I mean, Rupert Murdoch alone owns about two dozen right-favoring media outlets.
The phrase ‘cancel culture’ is new but the tactics, intent and use have been around forever. There is, indeed, nothing new under the sun. What is different is the time with which things can be ratcheted up has been ever-decreasing, while the speed and intensity has been ever-increasing.
It is somewhat comforting the seat of our government is situated in Washington, D.C. because it is just that much more of an effort to create a blood-thirsty flash mob hellbent on attacking the halls of Congress. Of course, flash mobs were never blood-thirsty insurrectionists. They leaned more toward whimsy and artistry.
A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails
‘Cancel culture’ has reached its zenith with death threats. Listen to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib describe her personal experience. Representative Tlaib took her oath of office on the Koran. For some odd reason, patriots forget we partly founded this nation on religious freedom. They also forget that we codified the separation of church and state in our Constitution.
I said something about death threats in an earlier writing. I believe I wrote physical threats to the lives of Congressional representatives and their families are what is keeping the GOP from speaking out against the rabid and ribald right. It is how the ‘previous dude’ is keeping the party of QAnon firmly within his grasp.
I don’t think the threat they may lose their seat is sufficient to keep them as cowed as they are behaving. I think they are receiving the same level of death threats the more liberal members of Congress are receiving. The ‘bags’ I see under Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham’s eyes are telling. While Mitch McConnell is just looking more cadaverous, so it is hard to tell with him.
Dr. Anthony Fauci received FBI-alarming death threats. Local magistrates, state and county health officials, governors - I mean, anyone who dare speak out publicly without praising the previous administration is likely to get threatened. There have been multiple major news stories of prominent people under incessant harassment.
Liz Cheney, the third ranking Republican in the House, was able to keep her leadership position after she voted in favor of impeaching the former president due to his high-profile role in the insurrection but only because the vote taken in the House of Representatives was secret. That tells you everything you need to know.
Death threats are just another form of terrorism. They go way beyond trying to cancel someone culturally.
It doesn’t matter that 99.9% of them are baseless. Once made, they’ve served their purpose of terrorizing their victim. Frankly, I’m amazed any of these public figures can adequately function. I don’t know how they do it and I fear - especially after watching Rep. Tlaib’s address to the House and Rep. Cortez’ Instagram video - that many of them will be unable to continue doing their spirited work after suffering relentless verbal attacks that threaten their lives.
The ‘previous dude’ who fashions himself as a modern-day Jefferson Davis could aid in salving the wounds by speaking out against this behavior. At least then death threats might be limited to the truly deranged individuals in our midst. But we know he would never do such an altruistic deed.
Unless there was something in it for him.
What if he were promised no jail time in exchange for admitting the election was fair and square, denouncing all of the QAnon conspiracy theories, recognizing and embracing the new administration, producing all of his tax records and confessing all of his sins?
Haha.
And what if Fox News agreed to air nothing but Romper Room, Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood around the clock, year round in perpetuity?
I knew I shouldn’t have taken that third tequila shot.
AAR Charley McCabe sent me this Timeline of the Human Condition a while back and, like our new White House press secretary, Ms. Psaki, I’m circling back to it. Look it over. There are definitely things that make you go, hmmmmmmm. . . . .
Also, regarding ‘cancel culture’.
