People were outraged when word went out that the “Cancel Culture” crowd had decided that Dr. Seuss should no longer be read to our children on National Read a Book Day. Posts and messages online decried how wrong this was. It was wrong but…
It was never really about Dr. Seuss and whether or not he was a racist.
Conservatives and the average person don’t really understand what “cancel culture” is.
“Cancel Culture” has been defined as the “intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism” in a definition stated by 153 writers and intellectuals in an open letter to Harper’s Magazine in July of 2020. It happens when someone writes, says, or posts something that offends some group and that group has enough supporters to use their offended status to get someone to retract/denounce what they said or to get fired or boycotted.
It’s way more than that. It is an important tool in the Socialist’s fight to silence dissent and erase our history, our culture, and us.
When Stalin took over in Russia, he killed millions of people. Some were people who were from the ruling class such as the Czar, his family and associates. A majority were people who expressed opposition to him and his movement. People were sent to the Gulags to suffer a slow, painful death or they were killed outright. This was effective for getting people out of his way, but it didn’t help him change the hearts and minds of the people.
For that to occur, he had to remove the culture of the Russian people. This meant getting rid of religion, customs, and history. To do this, between 1936-1938 he killed people in the “Great Purge,” even generals, field commanders and admirals in his own Red Army. As he selected those to be killed, he said, ” Who’s going to remember this riff raff in ten or twenty years. No one.” He had people “erased” from history. Their faces were removed from any pictures of revolutionary groups or even families. Any reference to them in any records were deleted. People were forbidden from mentioning their names.
Many statues and monuments were destroyed and replaced with statues glorifying him, Lenin, and the Revolution. History was rewritten and culture redesigned as Stalin employed movies and other devices to influence the new way of looking at Russia.
Why? If a person has memories or history to be proud of, that person is harder to indoctrinate. The person might remember the history they knew prior to the Revolution, and that might not put the Revolution in a favorable light. Of course, older people might remember more than what was desired, but as they died off the younger people would only know what they were told by Stalin’s Red Army. You don’t resist how your society is if you don’t know an alternative. It’s why citizens of the USSR were not allowed to travel freely from Russia to other countries.
If was effective because even after the Belin Wall fell and the USSR was changed back to Russia and other countries, it was hard to get the Russian people to adapt to democracy and free markets. Some say they still haven’t to this day.
And that is why the removal of Dr. Seuss is not about Dr. Seuss. It’s about removing any shared culture from the past and present that Socialists don’t like or that we may like too much. It’s why they want statues of Washington, Jefferson, and even Martin Luther King Jr. destroyed. It’s why they claim that our country was founded by slaves in 1619 in the 1619 Project. It’s why they target a person they don’t like with hatred over what he/she has done or said at any point in the past. They want that person fired, banished and destroyed.
Every brutal, totalitarian government ever formed on earth has used the strategy of cancel culture to initiate the degrading, dehumanizing, silencing, and eventually removal of every person or population that goes against the opinions of the dictators in charge.
But, none of that will happen here, right? After all, we have the Constitution, we have freedom of speech, we have the rule of law. Besides, it’s a long way to go from banning or calling someone out on Social Media and imprisoning or killing them.
Or is it. Are we just a few steps away from eliminating entire populations of people? In California, they are considering not allowing anyone who has expressed Christian or Conservative views to work as a policeman. In our Armed Services, soldiers are being subjected to the checking of their social media accounts for any references to Trump, Christianity, etc. Those who have them can expect to be ineligible for promotion or discharged. Look at Trump for goodness sake! It won’t be long before it is directed at the rest of us. If they can shame you and take your livelihood and rights from you, that is just a short step away from taking away everything, even life.
How do we fight back?
Know yourself, and I mean by know yourself, know who you are and be sure of who you are. You can’t fight these people if you are the least bit insecure. These folks will use your weaknesses and vulnerabilities against you. You need to be prepared for that first insult, that first call to your boss. You need to be prepared to fight back.
Know your enemy. All of us have enemies, people who would love to see us go down in flames. Think of who they are and what their weaknesses are. Be ready to use those weaknesses against them. Quite frankly, if you show them that you won’t back down, many of them will give up on you and move on.
When people, customs, or history are being erased, BE LOUD, visible and PROTEST in public. Write letters, call radio shows, organize physical protests because the folks who will try to cancel culture want to be in the fore front of every news article or broadcast. Steal their limelight.
Go on offense. Form groups of like minded people and start cancelling the Socialist culture. Call for the removal of their monuments, slogans, etc. from the public square. Go to local political meetings and demand that Socialist icons be removed from schools, town offices, etc.
Be aware of what is being taught in your child’s school and be prepared to speak out about those topics that should not be taught. When you look for colleges for your kids, do your research and find out who the professors are and what they teach. Have a say in which colleges your kids go to.
In your home, remove any popular culture that promotes values that are counter to yours. For example, no child should have seen the recent Grammies. Teach your children real history and your values.
If you can, be part of the creative process that produces entertainment that does reflect our American culture. Write a book, make a video, create art. write and perform a song. Don’t let the cancel culture have sole possession of the creative arts.
Most Important; NEVER EVER EVER APOLOGIZE OR BACK DOWN FROM WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU BELIEVE. Help others to do the same. I like something I once heard Doc Thompson say, “ if you can’t fight it, feature it.” Your strength lies in who you are.
We have a long way to go in the cancel culture war. The Left has a huge head start. But, we can catch up if we block their nonsense and promote our own. We have to be successful.
