My Own Experience With So-Called Cancel Culture

One hears a lot these days about so-called cancel culture. Cancel culture is basically when someone claims to take umbrage and/or be “offended” by what someone said and tries to destroy that person in some way. Some people talk as if cancel culture is a new phenomenon when, in reality, it has been around in one form or another for years. (For instance, just Google what happened to comedian Andrew “Dice” Clay and singer Sinead O’Connor and country group the Dixie Chicks who are now just the Chicks thanks in part to-you guessed it!-cancel culture.) The main difference nowadays is that so-called social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, especially Twitter, has amplified it.

I myself was a, for lack of a better word, victim of so-called cancel culture even before the phrase was coined. It happened back in the late-eighties when I was a senior in high school in a small town-which, of course, shall remain nameless-and I was getting ready to graduate. This, of course, was some years before the advent of the Internet and social media (in other words, back during the dark ages).

The small town I grew up in was like Friday Night Lights on acid where if you weren’t a high school jock you were considered worthless and pretty much treated as such like I was. So, during my senior year, I decided to go out with a bang, so to speak, and I self-published a series of “independent” newsletters where I took aim at some of the school’s-and the town’s-sacred cows such as football and homecoming and the like.

After sending copies of said “independent” newsletter to some newspapers, including my hometown newspaper, and even the governor of my state (who would later become president), I distributed copies of my newsletter around the school. As a result, rumors were spread about me that I was going to go on a killing spree at graduation. (This was also a decade before Columbine.) Of course, none of these rumors were true as I had made no-I repeat-NO threats in any of my newsletters to anyone in any way, shape or form.

Thankfully, in spite of the rumors, I did get to graduate with my classmates, though there were ironically rumors how the school board held a “special meeting” in order to take steps to deny giving me my diploma at graduation, and the principal-who would later get caught embezzling school funds-threatened to give me my diploma at the back door of the school before he backed off. Of course, even back then, if someone-anyone-had come forward and (falsely) claimed to have heard me make such a threat, the outcome would have been MUCH different. Also, thinking back on it, I also have no doubt if there had been an Internet and/or a social media site like Twitter back then I would have been the target of the so-called rage mob and the outcome would have also been much different in that I wouldn’t have gotten to graduate and that the principal would have made good on his threat to give me my diploma at the back door of the school.

Of course, nowadays people can lose their jobs, get kicked out of school and/or even have their very lives threatened on sites like-where else!-Twitter just for saying the “wrong” thing or for something “offensive” they posted on sites like-again, where else!-Twitter even years before. And, like I pointed out before, even celebrities have been targeted by cancel culture and have lost jobs as a result. (The most infamous example being perhaps Roseanne whose highly-rated show got cancelled after And Heaven for one “offensive” tweet she posted that she deleted and “apologized” for.) It’s gotten to the point where people, celebrity or no, are afraid to even speak on certain issues for fear of running afoul of the rage and/or “cancel” mob. And Heaven help you if you make even one “offensive” joke since cancel culture has all but killed comedy in this country. (Just ask The Simpsons!)

So, as my own experience clearly shows, cancel culture is here to stay. Even if it goes away in its current form (which I myself call “destroy culture” since the “cancelers” go out of their way to sadistically destroy people’s lives), it will still be around in some form ready to pounce on its next victim. And it doesn’t really matter which side of the political aisle it comes from since ALL sides engage in it to some degree. For instance, while a lot of so-called cancel culture is in fact coming from the so-called left nowadays, the so-called right has itself engaged in “cancelling” others as well (again, for instance, just look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks a.k.a. the Chicks).

So my heart definitely goes out to those who are targeted by so-called cancel culture and/or “destroy” culture. I know how it’s NOT fun to be on the receiving end of a rage and/or lynch mob. I’ve even since been attacked a time (or two) on-there again, where else!-Twitter for daring to post something that “offended” said mob. (One of the worst times was when I was attacked by a media pundit named Joan Walsh for posting something she didn’t like and I received literally hundreds of thousands of irate tweets not only from Joan-who ended up blocking me when I gave her attacks back to her which she clearly was NOT expecting-but from her “followers” as well.)

But I believe the best description of so-called cancel/”destroy” culture and how to deal with its repercussions comes from the show Star Trek The Next Generation-which in itself is ironic considering how TNG star LeVar Burton recently DEFENDED cancel culture on The View by calling it “consequence culture” and whatnot-where the show’s main character Captain Picard says the following to character Mr. Worf:

Another great description of cancel culture comes from comedian Dave Chappelle from his controversial-and funny as hell!-Netflix comedy show Sticks & Stones where he says the following of the utter ridiculousness and overall sadistic nature of cancel culture:

That they are, Dave. That they are!